Cigarettes and Marionettes are the things you can't escape.

^ I'm working on a song. I've got decent lyrics and a tune, but without a tuned piano setting it to legit music is becoming problem.

But first, my usual, in the news:

The Iranian election was a few days ago. Ahmidenijad shockingly won re-election and now most people are calling foul on the vote. So far there's not much we can do, but there's much protesting. I'm a little concerned that this might be a tianamen square repeat with all the student protests, so here's to hoping that such an event is avoided. More to come in the future.

Lakers won. Big shock for the overrated team.

Gas prices are rising, which makes me slightly ok with not having a car but is pretty shittacular in the long run.

Obviously not much is up in the news minus the Iranian election.

So today I saw the taking of Pelham 123. It wasn't amazing but it was a good movie. It made you think and I felt John Travolta did a wonderful portrayal of "Ryder." Valorie came over today and we watched the Tudors and made cookies (and my parents made us yummy hamburgers). We determined boo on Jonathan Rhys Meyers's beard and yay on Henry Cavill's pretty semi-curly hair. :)

Tomorrow should be interesting. I'm hopefully going to the mall to check out the Charlotte russe sale and am going to call Maybee New York and see what's up with the job. Tuesday is work, and theoretically I should get off at 7, but I have a "on call time" so if they decide they need me I'll be there until 10. If not then I get to go to Buon Giorno's and see Kevin play, which ought to be fun. :) Wednesday will hopefully be for hanging with Taheera and anyone else we might invite. Thursday I'll hopefully have lunch with Natalie and hang with people is well. I'm "on call" again Friday and Saturday I legit have to work. :/

Otherwise, I've been doing little projects. I've been kind of cleaning my room, reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (moving on to finish Inferno next), and writing. I ended up revamping a bit of my original novel Divinity and startes a song (from which I got this blog title). I'm going for a more slow bluesy sound for it. I'm still gathering headlines for my project and I'll hopefully help a friend on his project. His goal is to have people write/doodle on napkins when they're out alone or waiting. He says doing so brings off-guard, uncensored and unrealized thoughts. I think it sounds interesting so I promised I'd start doing that and collecting them for him. :)

I'm also working on finding and becoming inspiration. We'll see how that goes.

I haven't been doing Orgo/spanish/mech much lately. I think it's the keeping busy. Which is nice. It's good to keep busy. Until you remember why you're trying to keep busy. Then you kind of feel lonely again for a while. But I'm doing my best to keep it all smiles.

More in the near future hopefully.
Until then,
this single truth remains,
cigarettes and marionettes are the things you can't escape.

En este vida, solo hay manana.

^ I went for Spanish instead of a lyric.

It means, "In this life there is only tomorrow."

It feels like something I've been living by as of late. I've been pretty busy lately. And while it's a nice change from the usual laid back boredom that engulfs summer, it's a bit bittersweet, as it eradicates my time to think (albeit I think too much regardless). So here are things lately:

First of all, a few bits of history and news today. Actor David Carradine was found dead today in Thailand. Sad news. I don't recall what movie they say he was working on (I remember it sounding vaguely interesting though). My generation probably knows him best as Bill from the Kill Bill series by Tarantino, but my parents best know him from the '70's series Kung Fu, where the term "Little Grasshopper" originated. Thailand is labeling the death a suicide, but it seems a little fishy honestly. I'm curious as to what the final ruling will be. Regardless, R.I.P. to a great actor who will be remembered for his work.

In other news, today is June 4th, which means it is the twentieth anniversary of the Tianamen Square Massacre of 1989 in which the Chinese government killed a number of protesters, a large number of which were college students and only children of their respective families.(It also seemed to serve as a reminder to my father that I will be twenty next year. Shocker.) The true number of dead is unknown (as the Chinese government is said to downplay it while other sources are said to exaggerate) but any loss is a loss nonetheless and the event should be remembered. Hong Kong hosted the only memorial of the event today while the rest of China overlooked it and efforts to film and photgraph in the square by U.S. media were thwarted, indicating the want (or possibly need) of the government to keep a lid on the event. Despite the efforts, around the world the day will be remembered as it should. I'd also like note that very appropriately, I woke up to the song Hypnotize by System of a Down (Why don't you ask the kids in Tianamen Square, was fashion the reason why they were there?)

My last bit of news for the day is a brief note of President Obama's speech in Cairo today to the Muslim world. I haven't made it through the whole thing yet (I was almost done when mom called for dinner). But from what I saw, as well as the analysis I've seen, I feel like it was a job well done. While many analysts are saying the speech didn't give direct indications of action in the near future, I feel like the President did what was necessary. It's pretty obvious it is impossible to get a lot done in the Middle East immediately, but the implication that things will be done is there. It was good that he acknowledged the need to eliminate stereotype as well as the idea that goverments should be as the people want and that we have no right to interfere so long as it is the people's choice. I feel it was a good point for him to point out flaws in both the Palestinian and Israeli actions rather than take sides as numerous previous administrations appear to have done. While people think it's not much, it's good progress and obviously an extended hand to make an effort to do something different.

So my life.
Haha. Not a very subtle transition.
Things have been crazy. Mom had surgery so I've been taking care of her and the house. I started my job at Build-A-Bear (and made myself a new one. His name is Seymour and he's one of my favorite things right now.) I've been trying to find time to work on my latest story about a psychiatrist in San Francisco named Davey. (FYI, Davey is a girl). I've been dealing with some personal issues involving Houston and people in that city and have decided to take an alternate course of personal action. And I've decided to try my hand and new projects. Amongst the two I've done recently are deciding how to decorate my new room, making art out of contrasting newspaper headlines, working on Spanish and Orgo, Blogging More, Yoga and Meditation, and trying my hand at songwriting. So I'll have more updates on that soon.

Here're the things I've accomplished today:
1. Cleaned room
2. Set up a SHPE account.
3. Ranted with Valorie and resolved to take a new course of action.
4. Meditated

Goals for Tomorrow:
1. Go out and have fun
2. Figure out my Schedule at work this weekend.
3. Work on either Spanish or Orgo
4. Cut News clippings for my art project.
5. Work on web and flyer stuff for SHPE
6. Another blog?
7. Find New Projects to try.

I've also decided to try to note how appreciative I am of certain things and share my inspiration with others. One was the quote I used today: "In this life, there is only tomorrow." I'm also very thankful to live in a nation where I can protest without being killed. And I'm thankful to be me.