The Walking Meditator (or How I Became, “That Guy.”) (Part 1)
By Billy | April 3, 2009
Reading this blog to get to know me is much like looking through a rain splattered stained glass window trying to make out a figure in the distance. You know the direction I’m heading, you comprehend that I am more or less of humanoid characteristics, and you would probably note that I’m either heading in the entirely wrong direction as all the other obscured and mysterious blobs, at a complete standstill amidst the storm, or that I appear to be skipping as I go.
Each of the people I brush up against as I make my way along the sidewalk has a perfect and beautiful story to tell — each and every one. I don’t know theirs, so I can’t tell you much about their lives, though. I will take the liberty to assume that if you’re reading this, you have some sort of interest in things either relating to me or the things important to me. Thus, I will tell you a fraction of a piece of a chunk of my life, with a cool little trick / challenge I recommend you (whomever you are) undertake.
Take a moment and look at your hands. Are they gnarly? Are they dry? Do they twist and turn from years of use? Are they covered with beautiful scars that tell an awesome story — that Christmas morning when you were cutting a blueberry bagle, of that time you forgot to love yourself and left a permanent trophy etched into your skin to remind you of your supposed failure, of that time you tried to ride your bike while wearing roller skates… Bend your fingers… What does that mean? Are you bending only at the knuckle closest to your palm? What does it feel like? Make a fist. Let it out. Raise your middle finger as if someone had just cut you off. Did you perse your lips as you did that? Did anger arise in you as you flicked that finger out? Spread each of your fingers out. Can you feel the air surrounding you? Can you feel your energy radiating out?
Have you ever really sat and thought about all the things there are to think about when it comes to your hands? It’s really ridiculous. Now realize that those are just your hands… You still haven’t explored your eyes or their brows, your lips, your stomach, your arms, your legs, your butt, your _____, your etc… Your FEET. The motions I just asked you to do with your hands ignored, for the most part, that we are graced with a sense of touch. Touching is amazing. You are feeling things right now that you’re not even aware of. Your fingers, your palms, your buttocks, your shoulders, your forehead, your tongue, your wrists, your toes, your chest… Each of these is experiencing the sensation of touch right now. We travel throughout our day completely unaware of the amazing myriad of things that we experience without ever soaking in. (We won’t even bother getting into the other senses we ignore!)
The meditation I am most versed in is very simple. The immediate purpose is to become aware of yourself, with a higher purpose of becoming aware of your surroundings, your connection to things “other than yourself” (I quote this because I question it’s validity as a phrase), and the things leading up to that which makes you you.
Meditation explores the pieces of existence most closely related to you, and how they interact with eachother and you. Meditation is not just a thing that helps you as you are doing it, but it has long lasting, life altering affects. I’m going to go over breathing meditation and the practicalites found within the practice. It won’t take long. (Thanks for sticking by me this long!)
This was going to be something different, but now it’s manifested in a silly narration with no special attention to stylization or anything… 😀
“Jane closed her eyes (or kept them relaxed and open, fixed on a single location on the ground in front of her). She was sitting comfortably on the floor, legs crossed “indian style,” half lotus, or full lotus. She might have sat on a chair if she wanted to. She breathed in slowly, then out. At the finish of the exhale, she made a note in her head. “One,” she thought. As she inhaled again, she’d pay special attention to the sensation of air rushing past her nostrils (she was breathing through her nose, of course!) and as the coolness rushed over her soft pallet. She would pay attention to the swelling of her diaphram, as the muscle did its work to expand her lungs, which forced that cool air even deeper into her body. The exhale was warmer against her nostrils, and a bit louder, she noticed. “Two,” she thought. She repeated this process of awareness of her breating until she reached 10. At 10 she’d start over for a second, and finally a third time. Any time she’d get distracted by an ithc or a discomfort, she’d fix the problem and return to focusing on the breath — finding it easy to return to the task at hand. If she lost count, she’d start back at 1.”
What Jane is doing is forcing her brain, very gently, to comprehend the eternal cause-effect relationship in the world. As she masters the art of becoming physically aware of something as mundane as breathing, she will become more keenly aware to other things about herself she never realized. No joke, this is what happens.
If you make it second nature to understand that by contracting your diaphram muscle, your lungs will expand, which will create a vacuum in your lungs, which will force air into your body, which will make a cold tickle in your nose, which will make a slight whistle……… Eventually your brain is keen on noticing the minute details in it’s processes. This awareness of chain-reactions will make it easier for you to see that the guy who cut you off on the road was late for work and was just acting out of human nature, and that the reason you got upset was because he made you feel like you were less important than he was, which resulted in you wishing you appreciated yourself enough to know that it doesn’t matter what he thinks, which makes you lash out at him, because it’s easier to blame him than to face the lifelong burden of self-loathing that you’ve been avoiding for decades.
That might not be the exact reason you’re hurt, and it might not prevent your hand from sticking out the window with a gesture or two for the guy, but over time and with practice, you will become more aware of these chain reactions that happen every second of your life. On top of that, meditation of the sort I described above will generally leave you with a nice centered feeling that will put you in a special, protected mental state for a while.
Now that you have that simple concept of meditation in your brain, I’m going to push “POST” without proof reading, and go to bed thinking about the chain reaction of events that led to me not doing my French homework, but writing a blog post that I didn’t know where it would take me when I started. As understanding of the chain of events and interconnectedness of life expands, it becomes more difficult to be angry. I believe that forgiveness comes from understanding — I understand that you’re human so I can love you, I understand that you and I are both divine and perfect beings so I need to love you, I understand that you have hard times every now and then so I forgive you. I may be mad at myself for not doing my homework, but honestly? It felt right to watch Garden State in my friends room. It felt right to abandon my homework for the sake of a blog post. When I understand that I was doing what felt right, the anger at my “misdeeds” disappears and is replaced with a content but nervous feeling. I don’t erase my troubles, just my anger at them. So anyway. POST time. Maybe I’ll edit tomorrow. Maybe I’ll forget to get on with the REAL point of this post. (Stay tuned for part 2!)
Topics: Philosophy, This is my life | Comments Off on The Walking Meditator (or How I Became, “That Guy.”) (Part 1)
Activism and Civil Conscience
By Billy | March 24, 2009
Three weeks ago (Early March, 2009) I began a new chapter in my life. I attended the Capitol Climate Action (after Powershift 2009 came to a close) and participated in a HUGE act of Civil Conscience, protesting a particular Coal Power Plant in DC, as well as the entire institution of coal in our country. The next week I attended Mountain Justice Spring Break, a ridiculously amazing program to help empower youth and help them empower their communities. After a week of powerful conversations, workshops, community service, and trainings, the event came to a head with a massive march in around the Tennessee Valley Authority headquarters. The TVA is responsible for a huge portion of the power in the US, granted, but they are THE BIGGEST buyer of coal, and the company most directly (in my definition of responsiblity) responsible for the decapitation of hundreds of mountains (Mountain Top Removal uses 3,000,000 pounds of explosives each day…), as well as the country’s LARGEST environmental disaster (not to mention the gross negligence of said disaster and the callous response they gave the people dying or physically sickened by the event) which was estimated to be 48 times worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
After an inspiring march around the building, my affinity group and I enacted what a moment that many of us had been waiting for all week, if not their entire life. Some of us had put up with the dangerous, damning, and dirty practices surrounding coal for our entire lives.
Coal is dirty, we wanted to remind everyone, from cradle to grave. “Clean Coal” is a myth; a lie. The result of “Clean Coal” is cleaner smog, but the new addition of sludge ponds. Fly ash, slurry, and sludge are the leftover toxic waste from the various proces by which coal becomes “clean.” We “clean” all the deadliness out of coal, we [read: they] (but you’re contributing! So am I by using this computer right now) dump it into a pond high up in the mountains, and let it sit there. There are no plans for removing the mercury, arsenic, or other heavy metals and toxins in the pond, just to let it stay behind the earthen dam (which frequently leaks) and fester. The Appalachian Region, the region in which the most of this is happening, has the highest asthma rates in the country year after year. One common alternative to sludge ponds is to dump the sludge into the abandoned mines in the area, and let the toxins slowly seep into the earth.
I will try my best to recall exactly what I said before the Nonviolent Direct Action at the TVA march. I feel that explains why I did it.
“I have chosen today. I have the opportunity to die here today, in representation of the people who had no choice in the matter. TVA is killing people with it’s deadly practices and I’m doing what I feel is right to call attention to this. I am dying today because this is bigger than I am or ever could be. These mountains are my backbones, these rivers are my veins, and these people are my family members. Violence against them is suicide.”
I hope you’ll watch the video so you can see for yourself what we did afterwards, but it’s called a Die In. Myself and 13 comrades pretended to die and remained dead for a good while in front of the TVA Headquarters in order to call attention to the deadly practices of TVA. Here is footage of the march, speeches, and dying-in.
I’ll post Mountain Justice’s official press release here:
Local residents joined dozens of activists from across the country today in a demonstration at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s headquarters, which resulted in the arrest of 14 individuals, after participating in a “die in” in front of the building . This event was held to in solidarity with communities affected by the destructive impacts of Mountaintop Removal coal mining and the surivors of the recent coal ash disaster in Harriman.
“It is time for TVA to take full responsibility for its destructive behavior,” Eric Blevins said, an organizer with Mountain Justice. He continued, “They need to support the recovery of the community that is still being hurt by the ash disaster, and take an active role in the transition away from dirty and dangerous practices towards renewable energy and healthier jobs.”
Saturday’s demonstration began with a rally in Market Square, where organizers from United Mountain Defense, and Mountain Justice spoke about coal’s impact from cradle to grave on communities in Appalachia and the surrounding area. The crowd then marched through downtown Knoxville and ended at TVA’s headquarters. At the end of the march people interested in participating in Civil Disobedience gave a statement as to why they wanted to take this action. With the support of a singing crowd each participant fell to the ground representing the deaths caused by the coal industry. After a few minutes Knoxville law enforcement informed the participants that they were blocking the sidewalk, and that they needed to remove themselves from the area. All 14 people were arrested, and cited for loitering.
TVA owns and operates the Kingston coal plant, where last December an impoundment failed, spilling 1.6 billion gallons of heavy metal-laden coal ash waste over an area of 400 acres. The spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in US history, which disproves the energy industry’s recent “clean coal” smokescreen.
“The massive toxic fly ash disaster is just one more reason that coal is filthy. Coal fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, is an end result of the dirty life-cycle of coal,” explains Bonnie Swinford, full time volunteer for United Mountain Defense, “which often begins with surface mining and mountaintop removal, followed by a washing process that produces coal toxin concentrate known as slurry. Mountaintop removal coal extraction has destroyed almost 500 mountains, and, in addition to coal slurry, continues to destroy water sources across Appalachia.”
Mountaintop removal is the most destructive method of coal extraction, in which mountains are blown up to expose coal seams. This process destroys fragile mountain ecosystems, fills valleys and streams with waste, and leaves behind billions of gallons of toxic coal sludge that contaminates essential drinking water supplies for many cities surrounding Appalachia.
Today’s demonstration was part of an escalating series of protests across the country calling for immediate action on the coal industry’s destructive practices, including recent arrests in the Coal River Valley, WV on March 5th and the Capital Climate Action, where on March 2, nearly three thousand protesters closed all entrances to the Capitol Coal Plant in Washington, D.C. We need your help and support to continue this call out for immediate action to end the unjust practice of Mountaintop Removal, and push for a just transition to renewable energy.
Now that you are in the know about THAT… This just in! Though this doesn’t make much difference, an inch is an inch, I’d say.
(Washington, D.C. – March 24, 2009) The United States Environmental Protection Agency has sent two letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expressing serious concerns about the need to reduce the potential harmful impacts on water quality caused by certain types of coal mining practices, such as mountaintop mining. The letters specifically addressed two new surface coal mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky. EPA also intends to review other requests for mining permits.
“The two letters reflect EPA’s considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams,” said Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “I have directed the agency to review other mining permit requests. EPA will use the best science and follow the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment.”
EPA’s letters, sent to the Corps office in Huntington, W.Va., stated that the coal mines would likely cause water quality problems in streams below the mines, would cause significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities, and that proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate. EPA has recommended specific actions be taken to further avoid and reduce these harmful impacts and to improve mitigation.
The letters were sent to the Corps by EPA senior officials in the agency’s Atlanta and Philadelphia offices. Permit applications for such projects are required by the Clean Water Act.
EPA also requested the opportunity to meet with the Corps and the mining companies seeking the new permits to discuss alternatives that would better protect streams, wetlands and rivers.
The Corps is responsible for issuing Clean Water Act permits for proposed surface coal mining operations that impact streams, wetlands, and other waters. EPA is required by the act to review proposed permits and provides comments to the Corps where necessary to ensure that proposed permits fully protect water quality.
Because of active litigation in the 4th Circuit challenging the issuance of Corps permits for coal mining, the Corps has been issuing far fewer permits in West Virginia since the litigation began in 2007. As a result, there is a significant backlog of permits under review by the Corps. EPA expects to be actively involved in the review of these permits following issuance of the 4th Circuit decision last month.
EPA is coordinating its action with the White House Council on Environmental Quality and with other agencies including the Corps.
More information on wetlands and the letters: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/
Topics: This is my life | 1 Comment »
I love being a Religious Studies major!
By William Alexander | January 21, 2009
Here is the exact text of a paper I just wrote for my religious studies class. I’m not going to bother giving context, it is pretty easy to get. I love my life now that I’m doing what I want to in school. Kids, don’t be afraid to dream.
My religious tradition would most closely be described as deeply personal, self produced, inconstant, and heavily influenced by the East. Many influences come from New Ageist ideals, while others come from ancient Vedic concepts, or age old Chinese traditions. I continue to understand and realize the divinity of all existence, while living as a Buddhist and Taoist. As a Buddhist I view the Bible as a useful for some guide that is inherently empty of inherent existence. As a Taoist I see that the Tao came first, and from that came the wisdom found in the Bible. I have actually tried to read the Bible with a Taoist lens and seem AMAZING connections. King David and Lao Tzu surely saw the exact same thing, called by different names (or the same thing, nameless!). I think the Bible is the true word of God, as much as I think a flower, a mountain, or a gunshot to the face is the true word of God. Some people need to approach enlightenment from the biblical direction — and to be more specific in there, some people need to interpret it literally, some metaphorically, some in between. In the end of the day, I am worried more about experiencing myself more fully, and have left the Bible as a major source of advice for my personal life and moved on to more specific advice in the forms of personal experience and introspection. My reading and looking for advice comes from gods word most often in the form of other spiritual beings — in conversations, blogs, e-mails, or books they have written.
I adhere most closely to Ch’an or Zen Buddhism. The founder of Ch’an Buddhism was an uneducated orphan who intrinsically understood the ‘obvious’ truths that lead one to enlightenment. I use him (Hui-neng) as an example of how I should search to understand what authority figures to revere and whom I should not. If Hui-neng can create a wealth of knowledge having never been trained, a theologian may help me in my path to understanding divinity, regardless of his formal training. Further, as a Buddhist I acknowledge the inevitable change certain in all life — it seems useless to adhere to an ancient custom if it is not of the most benefit to all. Popes have been corrupt and Popes have been mighty spiritual leaders. I don’t see a reason to choose a Pope over Mahatmas Ghandi, for example, but see no reason to revere Hui-neng over Pope John Paul II. Each of them is reflecting the light of God from a different angle and in a different frequency, helping people who fell outside the spectrum before to see it. I can always see something in a new light, but I need to make sure what I see makes sense and falls in accord with what I feel in my spirit.
My working hermeneutic (personal lens) regarding the Bible conforms perfectly to my “religious tradition” since this I have acknowledged that my religious tradition is my own (I think we all have our own, but some choose to ignore that). I look at the Bible as helpful but not necessary, wise but not infallible, insightful but not the only correct point of view, and the perfect expression of the divine. (Exactly like everything else in the universe.)
My religious point of view has been influenced by my immediate culture, especially in how I feel that I should question things constantly. My home’s culture was one of inquisitiveness and idealism. As an “upper class white kid,” I went to Catholic School until my junior year of college — each of these years helped define my relationship with the divine, often I perceived I was growing away from the god of the Book. (Which I learned later was not Possible!) In any case, I have used this “ethnicity” (whatever that means) as a spring board into my own inquisitions upon myself. My religious stance is completely different, but 100% connected to my ethnicity. Actually, YOUR ethnicity influences my religious stance, as does your choice of transportation four weeks and three days ago, the way you like your tea, and what you had for breakfast today. My “ethnicity” is as inseparable from my religious expression as you are from me. We are all connected, and intimately so. When wind blows on one part of the web, the raindrops on the rest of the web shall move, too!
Gender is a funny-to-define concept. What does it mean to be a girl? The way conventionally educated language has formed would say that members of the Female Sex have a vagina, their male counterparts have a penis. To be a Female in Gender is completely different. Sex, while the majority of the time is clearly binary (with birth rarities and surgical procedures being the exception). Gender is a relative thing. To be female in gender means that your gender is not male. I will never know that hardships and feelings that physically Female human beings undergo in the world, so I can only interpret the Bible (in this life) as a physical Male. My gender (as far as I am concerned) is fluid and extremely difficult to define. Walking the gender line of androgyny, I feel, gives me a unique perspective, but is an infinitesimally small piece of the puzzle to how I understand the Bible. My unique gender helps define who I am, but other than generalizations like, “I’m more sensitive than most “boys” that I know,” I don’t know how to put it. I try my best to see beyond physical Sex, since these really don’t change the spirit at all.
As I’ve mentioned, I am an “upper class white kid.” This means that I have parents with enough time on their hands to help me on an intimate level in understanding things for myself (with things like Math and Science Night at the dinner table), while also being able to share their many travels to other parts of the world with me, bringing me a more global perspective. Traveling to other countries (which is not an option for some social classes) has helped me realize that the typical Northern Virginian approach to the Bible is NOT the only one. This helped me directly understand the relativistic nature of religious interpretation as well as experience suffering and compassion on a new level. Being raised as a science focused, never-settling, “just be a good person” sort of kid, I have always taken the Bible with a grain of salt. It means more to me now that I see it as a reflection of god in my Buddhist/New Aged view than it did as a lesson book for young Catholics (like I saw it as a child).
In my private, Catholic school, it usually went that one year my dog will go to heaven, the next year all animals live without souls, while third grade only higher functioning animals have souls. Every teacher taught us something new about “our” professed faith. I began to question WHY God wanted us to go to church on the first Friday of the month, and why going to church on Saturday morning wouldn’t count for the whole week, while Saturday night would. I began to question nit-picky rules in “my” religion as I learned about them, and began wondering why I said the things I did in “my” prayers as I said them. Catholic school had much to do with my growth into a religious person, and much to do with the development of my unique relationship with god. (Hi god) Though I read and studied the Bible, I was never once told to interpret the texts in a literal sense. (I don’t recall many “this is how you should interpret this chapter,” things from school, actually) I usually walked away with the same general feeling: These texts have been handed down for a long time, translated many times, written years after the events, and maybe not even by the person who supposedly wrote it! The authorship, time of recording, etc., have never clouded the importance or validity of the text. I have always had a way of interpreting that I understood; sometimes I was to read literally, sometimes just as a lesson.
I, much more so than anyone I know, feel certain needs of others in a direct and sometimes impairing way. This is, in fact, the thing upon which I am working most to change about myself right now. I am often held up by injustices about which I can do nothing immediately to change — I will dwell on them for hours, feel guilt for my inability to help, and become cold and sad towards the world. I have realized that I need to practice being powered up by these emotions but not letting them take hold of me as they seem to do right now, and am learning to keep my head high and stay optimistic and loving despite the needs of others I see going unnoticed. “My community” is everything within the confines of Existence (as opposed to existence. Capital E Existence includes nonexistent things like thoughts and stuff). The needs of my community are exactly the same needs as I have. Since I will not be satisfied until the rest of the world is, I work very hard to make sure I never sit still (that almost sounds kind of selfish…). I see the hardships felt from godlessness and also the hardships felt from zealous “godliness”. I think the connections I see between most global travesties and religious interpretation has helped dampen my straight forward acceptance of all religious texts.
I think the part I would focus on in this is part of what I mentioned about YOUR influence in my life. You, your mom, your dog, and EVERYTHING in the universe has a direct and amazing connection and influence on me. I can’t understand the connection, but I can feel it and respect it. This assignment is about the various influences on my religion and my interpretation of the bible, but I can only express the smallest fraction of the things that go into forming my beliefs. I hope I did a decent job expressing my thoughts as far as this class and its conventional limitations are concerned.
Topics: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Utterly Random | 2 Comments »
The Musical Journey Continues! Hello, Sigur Rós
By William Alexander | January 19, 2009
Sigur Rós is perhaps the most persistently beautiful, exciting, and unique band I listen to. Their music videos are a complete set of art in and of themselves, but their sound is what I’m really here to talk about. I have been known to throw on my Audio Technica studio headphones (which I highly recommend if you’re in the market) and lay on something comfortable while I simply exist someplace between reality and total paradise for hours with Sigur Rós melting my eardrums into peaceful oblivion. (What a run on sentence!)
Once again, Experiment Three has come to my rescue and conveniently uploaded everything one might want to find by these guys. (Here is their Last.Fm page). I really recommend you follow the link at the bottom of this post and download everything, rather than listening to me blab on about their amazingness. I’d go in chronological order and give it a listen when you’re ready for a full experience, since their atmosphere is really remarkable, provided you allow it to be.
As a random piece of trivia, (one of the reasons I love them)— the entire ( ) album is in a made up language. Hmm. Did I mention they sing in Icelandic? If God spoke directly in a human language, it would probably be Icelandic. It would probably be through these albums. Also, I KNOW God speaks through the use of a violin bow on a guitar. What an amaaaaazing sound.
Here ya go!
(Hi Little Lamb Princess of Boringness 😀 You are beautiful!)
Topics: Music | Comments Off on The Musical Journey Continues! Hello, Sigur Rós
The Musical Journey Continues
By William Alexander | January 12, 2009
I am re-instating, just for today, the EPIC POST TITLES like I used to do so frequently. It will probably pass quickly — I just feel like since I’m starting a new semester I am embarking on something new…
That’s not what this post is about. It’s just me being distracted.
This post IS about Brett Dennen. I found him for the first time using Pandora.
He plays very folky guitar, in addition to his unique and sweet voice. To describe it is to take away from the art, so I’d suggest you listen to some of the free full tracks available in the last.fm link I gave you above.
When I listened to his song, “I Asked When” and heard the line saying, “slavyer stitched into the fabric of my clothes,” I knew I wanted to blog about him. Hmmmmm. I have a present for you. Howsabout we let Brett Speak for himself. You tell me what you think. I have found a new and hardly put together blog (entirely unrelated to mine) that happens to have found three Brett Dennen albums uploaded to Mediafire ready for trial. Check this out. I hope this blog continues to upload music I like.
Enjoy!
http://experimentthr33.blogspot.com/
Topics: Music | Comments Off on The Musical Journey Continues
Another Comic of the [ATF]!!!
By William Alexander | January 10, 2009
XKCD Delivers again. This one makes me chuckle my pants off (figuratively).
I don’t really want to get into toooooooo much right now. In fact, once I get back into the swing of things at school, I will write a comparison of some Buddhist and Christian concepts, I will teach you how to get alllllll the music you can handle (and if you’re me, more than that) for absolutely nothing, how to download free movies without worry, I have 6 interesting links, annnnnnnd, I want to start documenting some projects I’m working on. That should be interesting… right? right…?
For now, I will post this comic and run away, exactly like I promised I wouldn’t when I started this thang.
You don’t even have to get the last one (I don’t) to find this funny and amusing.
Edit: I just tagged this post with “flow chart.” Why??
Topics: Comic of the [ATF], Utterly Random | 1 Comment »
My First Film Post
By William Alexander | January 6, 2009
I am a movie snob. I enjoy most of everything in life, so I wouldn’t say that I don’t like watching most movies, but for me to REALLY enjoy a movie, it needs to be spectacular. One of my favorite genres is definitely horror. Zombies, Werewolves, and Vampires are some of my favorite subgenres. My friend showed me the highly interpretable “Cemetary Man” and I have not been able to find a good zombie flick since. Sure, I love 28 Days and Weeks later, and the Resident Evil trilogy is definitely stored on my hard drive, but they hardly fall under the same category as Cemetary Man or The Orphanage (or other gems outside of the genre like Fight Club or V for Vendetta).
I am writing this at 12:43 AM. I JUST finished watching [REC] and I reallly have to say that I am floored. Totally. Another thing I must say is that I haven’t really been scared of a movie lately. The best that can happen is I will momentarily jump at a “BAM” sort of moment, when the monster appears out of nowhere, very suddenly, and the loud noise is more of the scare than anything else. I didn’t think I could be scared of a movie at all. That self-image changed about an hour and a half ago. In fact, my heart is still racing and my hands are still shakey. All the lights went on the second the film finished, I was so scared.
If you haven’t heard anything about the movie, good. I hadn’t heard a THING about it until I watched. I actually stumbled across this film with the movie recommender I use, www.movielens.org, and downloaded and watched shortly afterwards.
I will leave you at that. Go watch [REC] and have your pants scared off. The footage is unique, the acting is well done, and I have no complaints! You truly will grow attached to the camera man and reporter who were telling the story that turns out to be the movie. I’ve seen films like this before (I have yet to see the Blair Witch project) like The Diary of the Dead, and enjoyed the innovation, but not the execution so much. This was, again, perfect.
I am linking below to the site from which I downloaded the movie. Go here, download the movie in segments using Rapidshare and the Free User option. Wait the 20 minutes between downloads, and un-rar the files with something like 7zip (google search it) all at once. If it says the file is broken when you unzip it, try it again — it always works on the second try for me. Hmmm.
Anyway. Here. WATCH!
http://www.rapidunlimited.com/blog/?p=439
Topics: Utterly Random | Comments Off on My First Film Post
Webcomic of the [ATF] Installment #n+1 (i++?)
By William Alexander | January 5, 2009
Whooooo. I haven’t written in far, far too long. Hello, I wish you all the best in whatever holidays or whatever you call new year, and if you’re like me — a happy day since they’re all the same.
I have been stumbling a lot having been home from school. A lot. (I’ve also been downloading movies, music, and playing one particular zombie game that’s pretty fun)
Stumbling for me means finding funny things. In particular, comics. Todays Web Comic of the Arbitrary Time Frame comes from Buttersafe. I hope you enjoy.
I think it’s funny, okay?
Ha.
Okay. More to come. Aaron, if you haven’t lost faith in me, I will respond to you eventaully, I promise!
Till next time,
Peace out, homies!
Topics: Comic of the [ATF], Nonfiction, Utterly Random | Comments Off on Webcomic of the [ATF] Installment #n+1 (i++?)
The Spirit of Christmas
By William Alexander | December 23, 2008
I found it! For a shining, magical moment… I found the spirit of Christmas amidst the ugly place we call Tysons Corner, Virginia through the horribly selfish and dangerous northern Virginian drivers, beyond the greedy shoppers, and well, well outside the festively (and wastefully) wrapped presents.
I don’t like buying things. I don’t need things. If I had my way (and I hope to someday soon) I would never touch a paper bill or credit card for the rest of my life. The more I get without seeing exactly the way it came to me, the more I tell myself, “too much stuff! Too much stuff!”
I think we’ve all lost touch with a lot of important things, (orly? You hadn’t noticed?) The Spirit of Christmas not being excluded. As I paraded around the mall this week looking for a particularly ugly lapshade to further a family tradition, I felt like an alien — like I was invisible, or that I knew a secret about things nobody else did. Does that sound elitist of me? Good. (I am happy with my life, and I see on the faces of the people in Saks Fifth Avenue (for example) that they are not.) I don’t want to make these people like me, I just want them to be like THEY secretly want to be. I see it clear as day.
ANYWAY.
I see the Spirit of Christmas in children. That’s where I’m going and I am too bogged down by the things that bother me during this season to make a nice story leading up to that point. I was in Costco watching people be rude to their fellow man in an attempt to get the gifts for their loved ones ASAP. I watched people run around feeling obligated to give gifts to people on this arbitrarily chosen date that is supposed to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. I get frustrated because I can’t see any logic in waiting to give people that I love things I think they deserve — that and I don’t see why anyone would deserve a diamond ring at the expense of human life, or an HD TV made of masterials that are quickly being depleted from our planet, or even just simple gifts that nobody REALLY wants, but we get them for the sake of saying, “hey, we didn’t forget about you at least.” (Did you know we could invest 10,000,000$ in providing clean water (the lack of which is the NUMBER ONE killer in the world) to the world, but instead we spend 45 times that on Christmas each year.)
So in the midst of people walking around placing a higher value on their family members than the other members of their human family, they were doing a major disservice to people who really might need things — things more important than something like a game for Nintendo Wii that simulates outdoor activities. (Honestly. Honestly?), I see a father helping his child drink some water. His face reveals to me that the rest of the store doesn’t matter. The gifts, the money, the obligations… None of it exists but his son. A weight had been lifted from my shoulders. This is Christ in action I thought to myself. This is Christmas. The present I feel we need to give to each other is attention, love, and affection. Those all come from us following our spirits, closing in the distance between ourselves and god. The gift we can give is the gift of being ourselves for them. You are a beautiful, perfect person, and if you step up and fill those shoes, you will give the people you love exactly what they want and deserve.
Buddha, Lao-Tzu, and Christ have all reminded us to look to children to learn the truth. This is because children inspire us to be our true selves by being themselves, and they MAKE us be ourselves by reminding us to fully embody love, which is identical to being ourselves completely.
Topics: Utterly Random | 1 Comment »
Life: The Musical
By William Alexander | December 18, 2008
I’ve always known I’m not the only one of my kind, though I’ve always felt like it. The first time I really felt at home, or really noticed that I truly did, was when I went camping with JMU’s Earth Club. Someone brought delicious salsa from a local restaurant and they managed to spill the entire container on the ground. I scream dramatically and run over to the puddle of salsa with a bag of chips. Before I know it, 8 or more people are gently pushing one another away trying to get their share of salsa off the ground. “Ooohpf! That one DEFINITELY had a rock!” I heard my friend Barbie shout. “Where’s that bag of chips?” She continued without skipping a beat. I had one of those oh-my-god-I-am-living-my-life moments right then. As we ate the dirt and salsa, I consciously thought, “Ahhh, I finally have found people like me.”
I’ve yet to find someone JUST like me — and if I do I shall run far, far away, since I don’t think I’d much like my quirks. I’ve found and continue to find people who have similarities to me — deep and surprisingly similar things, but hardly any one person shares the same as me. Imagine a venn-diagram with a trillion circles surrounding one single circle in the middle. At the absolute center of that circle is me, No one has EVERYTHING in common with me. This is true for all of us. I am just a circle around the center of everyone else’s venn-diagram circle, too.
I recently stumbled upon a community of Vegans who love to run barefoot, which surprised me and again, made me feel at home. Today, I StumbledUpon this video and site which made me feel very much accepted and not-at-all-alone.
I will someday write about my dreams of becoming a vagabond — the hope to drop the mask and become a person. But for now, I will let you read this impeccably well written, expressive, and insert-word-that-expresses-how-well-this-guy-said-all-the-stuff-I-was-already-thinking article and be happy with that.
Topics: Philosophy | Comments Off on Life: The Musical
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