My Bucket List (cosas q quiero hacer antes de fallecer)

- work on a movie set/play the part of an extra
- ser un "extra" en una pelicula
- circumnavigate the world with a friend
- circunnavegar el mundo
- travel Ireland with my father
- viajar por Irlanda con mi papa
- return to Arequipa, Peru
- volver a Arequipa, Peru
- bicycle/motorbike across Latin America
- pasear latinoamerica en bici o en moto
- fight a fire
- hacerme bombero contra un fuego
- swim with sharks (in a cage of course)
- nadar con los tiburones (claro q dentro de una jaula)
- drive a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (black w/ Ram Air, T-top)
- conducir un ~ (negro, con Ram Air, T-top)
- live and work in a foreign country
- vivir y trabajar en un pais extranjero
- write a book
- escribir un libro
- play sand volleyball in Hawaii
- jugar voley de arena en el estado de Hawaii
- go skydiving (I think this makes many lists)
- hacer el paracaidismo (creo q esta en muchas listas asi)
- officiate a college basketball contest
- arbitrar un partido universitario de basket
- watch the sun rise over Macchu Picchu
- ver al sol soliendo sobre las ruinas de Macchu Picchu (ya hecho)

I see it in your eyes; the desire to live deeply and ask the questions that have tugged at the mind your whole life long. You want to see not what's probable, but what's possible in your short lifetime. The world goes by, and you passively with it. There has never been a moment in your life where you seized an opportunity that you made possible by your own merit. Something that you sought out and thought, "who does that?" and then went hard after it yourself. But you are stuck, your choices have been made, your life unalterably decided, your unhappiness assured. Or are you? The moment we stop dreaming is the moment that we give up control of our lives. Our dreams are what motivate us beyond the here and now, and, ironically help us to live the now more deeply. For if we are sure of what tomorrow and the endless days to follow will bring, there is not much to look forward to, not many dreams to entertain. But instead to approach each day as a new potential to realize another dream, well then the day is as a great work of literature that holds our attention and motivates us on as the protagonist in our own epic journey.

I write this because I struggle with my state in life. My dreams tell me that there is more to come, more to see, and more to live than the here and now. But this moment at times can overpower us into believing that we will never overcome it. We will never get beyond this state, never realize our dreams, never even come close. This becomes most acute for me when I am at home. Here I was not born, but raised for the majority of my life; here my parents were born, and theirs before them; here I have two "alma maters" that beckon me back for new reasons. Nearby, two of my friends are married and settled, and happy. I know that I would not be for now. All this conspires to say that I will never get beyond. For I am at heart a simple man, with simple hopes and dreams, that need not extend beyond the outer reaches of this city. And then again, only in doing so has my mind been opened as far as it is. I need not imitate the lives of the saints, nor of the billionaires of the world; I have only to strike out my own path, using the gifts God has granted me the very best I can.

I do not want to be the one with longing eyes. I want my eyes always to sparkle with the thought of another dream, another mountain to climb, another sea to traverse, another jungle to conquer. I hope that my dreams are the cause of inspiration in other eyes, and other minds. I hope that everyone seeks the chance to realize their dreams to become all that they were made to be! Let not your dreams be constant reminders of how little you have accomplished, but instead motivators for the life you desire to live. "Live and live deeply, and suck all the marrow out of life!!!"

To write

I love writing just to write, not for anyone but myself...what is writing? To adhere to rules as I do? For without punctuation, capitalization, and a common language, my meaning may at many points be marred and maybe lost. However, some of the greatest authors and poets of our time have played with the necessity of strict adherence to these rules, and have discovered the reading public delighted! But then again, how do we transfer meaning from language to another? For though the English language is so open to different interpretation and experimentation, other languages are strictly guarded and guided. The French have an institute whose sole purpose is to maintain the integrity of French, the Spanish possess a similar academy that hands down rulings on newly developed words, but we who speak English have free reign to say whatever we want and use whatever words from any language or culture we choose. Who has the better system? Well, as long as communication takes place, I suppose it is enough. But the real artists play at the fringes of these systems, constantly questioning what is right and best, and using their gifts to entertain and confuse us into admiration for what they have accomplished.

I yet wait to see where my gifts may be employed to the expansion of English and Spanish relations, and maybe even flirting with some French and Italian along the way. We shall saw what will come of this foray...

Kent State U

Initially I wondered whether I simply possess a repulsion to undergraduate school campuses, but as I have spent more time here I am more and more excited about the prospect of studying once again. Life is too short to ever cease one's quest for knowledge, and this is just another romp in that infinite field!

The campus is beautiful, but this time I do not let that be my sole promoter. I am compelled by the complexity of the program I enter, the diversity of students and people I have already found here in the middle of summer. The climate agrees with me, but as snow will soon come to drive all indoors, I care little for the impact of this observation upon my overall evaluation. Life here will be quick and there will be little time for play, but at the same time this will be good to continue to nurture and use the skilled gray matter I have been blessed with upstairs.

If I can comment on the memorial...I find it ironic that the memorials are so plain. There is an inherent contradiction in the fact that the University most likely did support the protesters, but cannot publicly adulate them for their actions. The only real outcome would have been that the university could have questioned the state's use of power, but as the university also has a vested interest in a positive relationship with the state, the question could not be proposed all that severely. Hence we have four patches of blacktop, raised slightly from the level of the lot, and each surrounded by six distinctive lightposts not three feet high. Interesting is all I have to say...