A calm peaceful night

It was about 1:00 in the morning when my friend and I were cruising through town back to my house. The air was cool and carried a slightly sweet scent, the night was dark yet bright through the stars, and the town was silent. It was perfectly serene. The outside world was a perfect reflection of the life of highschool seniors. With graduation coming up, the world stood perfectly still. It was the moment in which everything becomes clear and a certain peace is obtained. This is the calm quiet before everything speeds up. This moment only happens once in a life time. After this, life will no longer be the same. And so passes the calm and peaceful night.

Break Point

This post is just an update on the current state of things. I have recently formed a 4 man group called break point. Inspired by America's Best Dance Crew's season 3 winner Quest Crew, I went out to form a crew of my own. As of now, we have a popper and a beginner at breaking (me), a hip hop dancer, another hip hop dancer who might begin housing, and a pure breaker. We have had a few rehearsals but we got relatively little done. Through this experience we have seen through the fun and games of being in a crew and have begun to realize how great a task we have decided to undertake. We plan on using many styles that other groups use while bringing our own flavor into our routines. Hopefully, this crew won't be among the various abandoned groups in the past. Hopefully, we will inspire many around us to achieve great things just like Quest crew has inspired us.

Fire and Water

I know that personally, when i'm watching a waterfall or maybe even a small flickering flame, i lose awareness of time and sometimes space. At first I achieve a clear and sharp sense of focus. I begin to think about the form and existence of the object. As time passes by, my mind begins to clear until there's nothing at all. In essence I've achieved thoughtlessness. In this pseudo-hypnotic state, everything stands still; perfectly serene and reserved in nature. Eventually, either by some outside interference or by a lose of focus, I snap out of this trance like state and reflect back in wonder. Although much of this sounds poetic and maybe even meditative, I assure you, while watching waterfalls, ocean waves, flames or other constnatly shifting object you'll experience a similar sensation. The descriptions above may seem exagerated and strange but in essence my mind experiences a loss of thoughts and a sense of serenity while watching these mysterious forms of nature.

Change

Some say that 21 is the prime time to live, others say it is the late teens. But when do we really reach the peak of our lives. From the early childhood to the young adult stage, we build up our skills in order to function in this world, after that, we begin to build up our identities and begin to search for ourselves, then we separate from our parents and try to establish ourselves, once established we try to rise in society, we begin to settle down as we choose a partner to live with for the rest of our lives, then we have kids and begin to give them that which our parents gave us, soon we watch them grow and can only helplessly reflect upon our own lives, eventually we must retire and live out the ends of our lives, eventually we watch the days count down until it is at the very last moments. Where in this string of events do we truly live out our lives? Physically, it is said our peaks are at 21 but mentally and socially, when do we stand strongest? Is life just a continuous string of events with the purpose of one just to establish the next? Sometimes I wish time would just stop, even if it's for a brief moment to appreciate all that is happening around me instead of waiting until I miss all that is gone from my life. About to embark on a new journey in my life, college, I have begun to ponder about these questions and started to notice the world around me. Nothing will be the same anymore. Soon my life will be a reflection of decisions and will no longer be influenced by my parents. The safety and the security that i've had all this time will disappear but in turn, I will have powers beyond anything that i've experience before. Now I wonder about one thing, what's next?

Anime

What is anime? Most people know that it's another word for japanese cartoons. They however don't understand that they bear little or no resemblance to western style cartoons. Western style cartoons are usually meant solely for kids, usually containing themes appropriate for children and geared to capture the younger audience. This is not so in anime. Although there are many anime series' that are geared for kids, the general spectrum includes the young adults and even adults. Anime series' are often mature and dwell into very adult themes and questions. It's another medium to convey a story, whether the story may be action, comedy, drama or romance.
The obvious reason for the miconception that anime is for children is due to the fact that the story is delivered through an animated medium. Western society isn't accostumed to seeing any story except children stories in an animated work. Another possible reason for this misunderstanding may be due to the poor dubbing qualities of the american translators. Most american translators have the mindset that cartoons are for children and often change the dialogue to fit a younger audience. The original mood and sometimes the message is lost within the translation of the dialogue.
Anime is definetely not geared solely for younger audiences. Series' like darker than black, death note, samurai x, mushi-shi, samurai champloo, evangelion and clannad are a few examples of shows that will have little or no appeal to children. These series' explore controversial topics, the meanings of life, and may contain excessive violence, drug use and sexuality. Anime is just a form of telling a story, may it be one for children or adults.

Values

Values are things, whether physical or mental, that are given to us since birth. We are raised in societies through their values. Eventually, we adopt those values and pass those on to the next generations. Why are values so important? Well values for one thing serve as a system of control. They serve as rules for children and invisible restraints for societies. But otherwise, values make up the human being and define who they are. Without values, one can say, one has no identity. Whether good or bad, grand or pathetic, real or artificial, everyone has values. But what do values tell us about ourselves? Human beings have been pondering this question for centuries now and still don't have a definite answer. I have no idea myself, but I believe that the strength of one's values directly represents the strength of that character. Those who are often deemed as "weak" by society have been so because they have little strength in their values. The one's that make true differences in the world around them are the one's that truly believe in their values and strictly abide by them.

Religion

In my world history class, freshmen year, a common topic discussed was religion. Religion obviously is a very controversial topic with no answer at all. Everything is opinionated and constant argument will still result in no progress. It does however, reveal things about people, society and the overall state of mankind in general. Now, here are a few of my thoughts. I neither accept nor reject any religion (so i guess you could say i'm agnostic) because i have no proof that it either exists or doesn't. However, the fact that religion is a man-made concept leads me to believe that it was created as a tool for control. It can be seen throughout history that religion was used to sway the opinion of the public in order to fight a war or recruit soldiers (this is how the concept of jihad was twisted from its original meaning). With religion being a method of control, what is real, what is fake? Did Mohammad actually experience anything, or did he notice a nation in distress that needed to be united through some higher force? These are all thoughts that i've had and some of the facts may be off. This is just a spewing of ideas from my mind. Post comments.