sundancingbliss

A major issue in the presidential debates is self deportation. Too bad about the Alabama immigration law. It's hard to believe something like this can take place in such a globalized world. I understand that we can't open america to everyone, i think we need focus our FP to promote democracy in Latino America so more people actually want to stay there.

Moneyball

"Yale, economics and baseball, you're an interesting guy Pete." Moneyball is my new favorite movie. It starts off with a bunch of guys sitting around a table discussing the future of the team; determining who will be successful on their team. These guys base these factors on silly things like how the player's girlfriend looks. If she is ugly, the player has no confidence.... As if that has any real value behind it. Then the GM, a role played by brad Pitt brings in young economics graduate Peter something.. And the movie unfolds to demonstrate the power of statistics in life.

Salad nicorce

On the Radio.

I feel really bad that that lady lost her baby.  Like really bad. 

I was driving up the 110 N when all of a sudden I saw this cloud of dark smoke in front of me.  The lane going south was empty.  Empty like ther was something very wrong.  I could smell the smoke.  As I pulled up ahead, there was lady in orange standing there wailing her arms in the air.

"Please God.  Someone help!  My bady is there."

All of a sudden, the agitation I was feeling from the late summer heat and the traffic subsided and all I could think about was her.  It was like the way I was behaving when my Grandfater died.  Given, I'm sure it's very different loosing your grandfather and loosing your child.  But still, the loss. 

My heart sank as I drove on the way home.  I prayed too- to God, I prayed that her baby would be okay.  I prayed that everything would be okay.  That the lady wailing on the street would be okay. 

I flicked through the raido stations trying to figure out what had happened.  A few minutes later I heard the news.  The "infant" had died. 

I hear these things on the radio all the time, but somehow this was different.  It's different when you're there at the scene.  My heart goes out to her. 

Life and Death

Grandpa left this Earth a few weeks ago and when he did, much went with him.  Lately I have been thinking a lot about death and with that life.  One day, I will go to.  Life is so short.  Generations come and go.  How will it be like when I go?  I started to think about the process of dying.  What must it be like?  Perhaps it’s a freeing process more than a scary process.  Being free from all the burdens of life.  Must be a relief.  Grandpa died surrounded by the presence of his children and his grandchildren.  I’m sure that must have been comforting. 

Grandpa was one of the few survivors left in our family from the Greatest Generation.  In a way, his death is like the passing the torch, a changing of the guard.  Oh life.  

 

Body, mind and soul

So, I have been reading a lot about anxiety and the body. Thought I would try to do my body some body some good. :) 

Rolls made out of pizza dough

Some of the things people hold on to...

Pasadena flea market

Found this guy at the Pasadena flea market... He should bring great wisdom to me

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."

The quick brown dog jumps over the lazy fox

GIRL

How did we get so lucky to find each other?

BOY

Divine intervention

 

Image: "Love, amor, aimer, amore" by AmmyLynn on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing

The Patience Ship

What are your weaknesses?

Patience.  I want things to happen immediately, but if there is anything this economy has taught me, it is patience.  The patience to deal with the uncertainty and if at all possible, learn to love and embrace the question themselves. 

What if?

Over the last few days, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the earthquake in Japan and the people whose life it took.  The ghostly images of the city of Sendai-- once a place flourishing with life.

It seems like the question "what if?" registers in our hearts when a catastrophe strikes.  What if it was someone we knew who had been taken away from us? What if it was our home that washed away by the tsunami.  What if it was our children, or our parents who disapperared among the rubble of distruction? 

In life, things are so easy to take for granted.  And it's so easy to take people for granted. Like the people in Sendai, everything was there one day, and the next, gone.  I am reminded to never take anything for granted.

Thought this was a fun and innovative commercial

On the way back to Los Angeles...

Instead of driving back to Los Angeles the way we came, we took the route south along the Colorado River.  I'm so glad we did because it took my breath away:

 

Lake Havasu

BJ and I decided to go for nice little drive out of the state of California and ventured across the border into Arizona until we reached a place called Lake Havasu:

View Larger Map

Lake Havasu is famous for having the London Bridge:

 

I knew that before we departed for the place, but what I didn't realize was that this bridge is actually a bridge from London..

Check this out:

There were other interesting sites that mimiced the London urband landscape:

 

Who needs to go to London?

Hello Fish

Poking its head out of the water to say hi

The Huntington Library

Vegan cupcakes

Interestingly enough, one of my new years resolutions, with BJ, was to go vegan for the month of January.  So, on my birthday, BJ got me the most beautiful vegan cupcakes ever. Happy birthday to me:)

 

National Gallery of Art

Ever since I can remember, D.C. has been a place where I visit a couple times a year. The National Gallery of Art is one of my favorite places in D.C. A place which always inspires me.. 

Here for instance is a self portrait done by Chuck Close.. 

It's done with thumb prints which adds another layer of identity to the self portrait..

I always love visiting the room in the museum with Alexander Calder's mobiles... 

The shadows are always so fascinating. They appear as if they are dancing on the wall.

So much emotion in this one.. 

 

Colors of the Getty Museum

I think in images. I have a well of images in my mind. Living in Los Angeles, is like living in a place where I have consistent  access to a stream of images and my well never runs dry.

Over the weekend, I filled my well of images at the Getty Museum. 

Upon stepping off the tram, my friends and I were immediately invited by a sculture. To us, it looked like a giant whale fin surfacing over the current before plummeting back beneath the waves. 

The Getty Museum is made up of tiles of travertine-- the same material that ancient cities like Rome are built from. 

Lots of squares... 

 

And fossils..

Here is one an elongated feather fossil... Fossils like these really get my imagination going...

And here is a leaf of what appears to be an olive tree..

 And there are all sorts of colors if you look around..