I haven't blogged in a long, long time, but I feel like I've found something worth sharing. This is the scariest thing I've ever seen.

Watch this clip:



Quiet scene. Tiger walks through shimmering, stony stream. Pleasant babble of noise. Indistinct voices. Scene change. Completely silent now. Grassland. Man on elephant. Scerene. Camera pans a little.

Out of the grass on the left comes a tiger, closing fast. It is closer than you would think it could get without being exposed. Elephant backs up. Man brandishes two bamboo twigs. Man throws one stick at tiger. Useless.

Tiger leaps twelve feet into the air, over the head of elephant, and attacks man.

Fin.

The clip is brief; not much more than half a minute, but this half minute of footage is riveting. There are several aspects of the footage that makes the whole thing deeply frightening for me. The first thing I noticed when I watched this was lack of context. Already, my imagination is at work. Also, the impact of the tiger attack is unseen because the clip ends as soon as the tiger connects with its prey. I'm left to imagine how it all turned out.

I know there's a lot of potential here to explain how this clip might apply to life, and that it would be easy to attach some grander meaning to the tiger, grass, etc. We all know life is precarious, and this clip could stand as a dark reminder. Honestly, though... the scene is what it is. The machinery of nature laid bare.

Unsettling. (Sur)real. Nightmarish.

I'm sitting at the computer and she brings me a sandwich.

"Hungry?"

"Still not."

"Plenty more where that came from." She sets the plate on my desk, leaves.

I log off and eat the sandwich, turn off the computer, head for the kitchen. She stands at the counter, busy with the peanut butter and jelly. I see the next sixty seconds in my head.

She will say something like, Hungry? And I will say something like, Still not. And she will say, Need to eat. And I will say, Better get going. And she, I'll wrap it. And I, Not necessary. And she, Just a moment. And then: she'll wrap it.

I set the plate on the counter.

"Hungry?" she says, sets a sandwich on the plate.

"Any milk?" I say.

She opens the frig, pours me a glass.

"Plenty more where that came from."

This week, Allen Lee, a high school student wrote some violent stuff:

CARY, Illinois (AP) -- A high school senior was arrested after writing that "it would be funny" to dream about opening fire in a building and having sex with the dead victims, authorities said.

The boy is looking at 30 days in jail and/or a $1,500 fine. This is in the news, of course, because of the V-Tech massacre.

But Lee says he was just trying to obey the assignment:

Students were told to "write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing," according to a copy of the assignment.

Of his work, Lee said:

"In creative writing, you're told to exaggerate," Lee said. "It was supposed to be just junk. ... There definitely is violent content, but they're taking it out of context and making it something it isn't."

Lee, a straight-A student, has been relegated to a high school for dummies.

Officials said the essay was "disturbing and inappropriate." I agree. It's probably inappropriate. But I don't think the kid should be arrested, and I don't think this should make the national—scratch that—international news. If it wasn't for V-Tech, this wouldn't be such big news. And in light of V-Tech, I don't think the kid should have written this in a school setting. Those are my personal opinions. I also personally don't like what he wrote.

But there's nothing wrong with what he wrote. He's not out shooting people himself. He's writing about it. He's not making any threats. And in this country, we have a right to do that. We have a right to say and think and feel things. In the case with Lee, no law has been broken, thus the vague "disorderly conduct" charge. What the kid wrote was in bad taste and timing. But it's not morally, ethically, or legally wrong. I doubt the law can do anything to him.

This was just a snap reaction in light of V-Tech. Apparently, the student is a good kid. I'll be his essay was creative and had some substance that's not making it into the AP articles. Too many people are directing their anger on kids like this, and on the media who gave Cho so much attention. They say, "The media is giving Cho so much attention! Now some other kid is going to go shoot up a school!" This isn't true. You can't assume a correlation between the two. Maybe the attention will inspire a kid NOT to go shoot up his school. You just have no idea.

I once told my friend Ben that my driving policy was "Do no harm. Don't make others angry. Don't dart out into the intersection if you have only a small chance to get across. Just WAIT! Don't give the other drivers any cause for alarm. You might agitate them, and then they'll be driving apprehensively and then they might get in a car crash."

But then Ben said, "Well, what if it makes them more careful, and then they DON'T get into a car crash?"

At that moment, I was enlightened.

And here's the moral of the story: Anyone can hypothesize a potential sequence of events, but you can't say with any certain that X (news coverage, student essays) will lead to Y (more school shootings). You can't say that extended coverage on Cho will cause Billy Bob to shoot someone anymore than you can say that extended coverage will cause Billy Bob NOT to shoot someone.

My point is this. Be mad at Cho, not at free speech. There are writers in Hollywood and elsewhere writing stuff everyday that's creeply. IT'S NOT ILLEGAL FOLKS. If you don't like it, that doesn't mean the other guy should be arrested.

This is the pendulum swing of history. Our rights as Americans are being curbed due to knee-jerk reactions to big, but isolated events.

In the wake of the V-Tech shooting, I see RSS headlines like this:

"Wisconsin teen shoots principle."

"Teen: 'I didn't mean to kill.'"

These headlines are about a shooting that took place a year ago. These headlines are misleading. If we didn't have V-Tech last week, those same headlines a) probably wouldn't be coming through the "top news" RSS feed, because they b) would probably be written as:

"That kid that shot someone last year who we all forgot about is having his trial now."

Or something similarly less non-newsy. But in order to get us to click and to stack CNN's ad counters with clicks, we get these misleading "top" "news" stories.

Grr!!!

Or?

:)

Everyone wants to love and be loved. But too often people get into relationships where one person loves the other person more. These relationships often end in pain and break-up. So how can you find someone you're compatible with? How can you find someone who loves you just as much as you love them? How can you form a healthy, balanced relationship with the right person?

1) Work On Yourself
The first step is to make yourself the type of person that your dream person wants to be with. Are you too fat? Go on a diet. Don't like your clothes? Get some new ones. Do you have a temper? Take a class or some vitamins that will help you calm down. Do people upset you easily or make you angry? You've got to deal with that anger. The first step is to sort out all of your personal problems so that you don't bring your problems into the relationship. You've got to be self-reliant BEFORE you can go looking for someone to share a life with. This is better for you, it's better for the one you love, and it will be better for your kids if you ever decide to have any.

2) Date
The second step is to go out and meet people and take them on dates. Now that you know yourself, you need to see what type of person you can love and be comfortable with. The keyword here is "compatibility." There are many types of people in the world and many types of beauties. You have to decide what type of person you're looking for and what you are compatible with. Do you like introverts or extraverts? Do you like smart people or average people? Tall or short? Is it important to you that the other person have similar interests as you, or does that not matter so much? Everyone has their own "love language." For some people it's time, for others it's speech, for others it's gifts. What is your love language? Do you want someone to give you time? Talk to you? Give you gifts? What is it that other people do that shows you that they care? This will be important to you throughout your whole life, so learn well what your love language is. Also, do you want to meet someone from your own country, culture, and religion? Or do you want to find someone different from usual? The second step is to search, search, search. Date as many people as possible to see what you like.

3) Be Willing to be Alone Until You Find the Right One
You might love someone but they might not love you back. Don't beat yourself up about it. Just learn from the relationship and then go back to step one! What did you learn from your last relationship and how can you improve? Don't get down on yourself. Remind yourself that you are a good person. You are valuable and you are worthy and deserving of love. You just haven't found the right one yet. If you love someone and they don't love you back, then that person is not the right one for you. You never know... maybe you'll meet someone tomorrow that you had no idea even existed yesterday. The key is to not be too hard on yourself. You've got to back to step one, maintain your own personal happines, and learn to rely on yourself. Then move on to step two. Where do you think you will meet the right person? In a cafe? A bookstore? A gym? A bar? Online? What kind of place attracts the person you're looking for? Take a chance and go out and look! And if things don't work out, don't worry. Be willing to be lonely until you find the right one. Don't hold on to an old relationship that doesn't work, it will only hurt you. Convenience is rarely a good reason to stay attached. Don't trade the presence of happiness for the absence of sadness. And don't ever get into a relationship that you know you will get out of. If you see things aren't going in the right direction, or that the two of you are not such a good match, then don't let the other person think there is more to the relationship than is really there. Be open! Be honest! But above all, be happy. Keep your head above the sand. Constantly improve yourself, learn about others, and maintain a positive attitude.

Doing these three things you are sure to find the right one.

Or?

:)

The movie Chicago was, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant films ever made. A perfect picture, incredibly thematic: we are superficial beings in a superficial world: a highly wowable species.

"Give 'em the ol' razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle 'em." Chicago

"Wow them in the end and you've got a hit." -McKee's character in Adaptation

Why is it that everyone is talking about:

When they should be talking about people like:

And his opinions about:

Poo-tee-tweet.

Yes, you, too, can hang me on your wall.