Splendid suns and black swans

The smell of a fresh crisp book as you open that first page and begin your journey...

It is amazing but refreshing to know that everyone's preference for a novel, a biography, or another non-fiction is so diverse. Why is it still a surprise then that the latest best seller just bores you and makes you fall asleep as you commute on your way to work/home? Yet, the one random book that suddenly strikes your fancy as you browse the multi-faceted covers full of animation, photos or other attractions just sucks you in from the first few words through the end.

The Black Swan -- certainly a useful read, in the least and my most recently completed. What may be inspirational to some is overrated and overhyped to others. In many ways it is controversial and in a few particular ways it is fascinating. Moral of the story -- everyone should stop trying to run to catch the bus/train, which I am happy to say I began doing a little while back.

A Thousand Splendid Suns -- what consumes my current commute and makes a little over an hour seem like a 5 minutes ride. It is surprising, full of foreshadowing. It is historic as it tells the story and the irony of "the other side" in Afganistan's journey of the end of the last century. It is educational, taking a peak into a culture and diversity of the people of the Islamic faith that a foreigner will never fully understand.

I hope to find more of the random books, authors and fate-changing stories.

Olives, Cafe, Duomo....all in Verona

With hunger for life's little pleasures comes the urge to discover new foods and cuisines of the globe.

Italian and French cooking was considered exotic to my Chinese and Japanese classmates, Chinese food was the exotic choice of the Italians and Germans. Yet we all had something in common. We all have those childhood habits of adoring one thing, while having another thing turn your stomach. In the middle there are those foods that you just never tried. You don't know why, but you just know that you don't even want to. Olives was just that type of food for me. Until recently...

The place -- Cafe Duomo, Verona, Italy.
The time -- lunch.
The choice -- Cafe Duomo Salad.

I have never tried an Olive in my entire life. The very smell of Olives just did not provide an inkling to try one. Yet, I was mesmorized as soon as I saw them arranged in the center and surrounded by real fresh tomatos, mozarella that actually has flavor and chunks of tuna on a bed of lettuce, capers and shredded carrots. I was drawn to its shininess, it's olive color. It just looked so appetizing. I had to try one. Of course, I had to fall in love. I had to wonder why was this the first time that I have tried such a creature, at the same time I was glad that it wasn't too late.

I now love olives. Well, at least the big green ones. I hope to share my love and get a taste of more as I fondly remember that day in Verona, Italy.

Yellow, Green and Brick

What makes Florence, Florence? I think it is the yellow sizzling sun of the brisk November weather, the green misty fields of the Tuscan region and the orange brick rooftops full of hundreds of years of architectural history.

If only it wasn't so touristy :(. Although great shopping for the fashionistas getting the latest of italian leather boots and bags, it is hard to get away from the busy streets and high rocket pricey snack bars and ristorantes.

Yet what makes it all worth it is the Uffizi gallery with the golden locks and innocence of Boticelli's Birth of Venus, and the Galleria Del'Academia with the massiveness of manhood of Michelangelo's David. These are just some of the perks stopping by Florence, even if for half a day.

A whole new world

Why is it that every time you travel to a different country, like the beautiful Italy, you come back refreshed full of energy and of ideas how you may want to change your life.

While walking around the old cities full of modern coffee shops and to die for shopping you start the re-evaluation process. For someone that doesn't come from 'old money' and has a very long way to finding the fortunes of 'new money' the realities of every day hassles and long term goals sink in. Are you really heading to a happy place of the perfect life/work/family balance (in no particular order)?

Whether it is the busy fastish life of Rome or the serenity of Siena and Tuscany all stress just clears out. All that time to think to yourself, without bothering with deadlines, food shopping or personality conflicts. The fresh air of the ideal life style is contagious. The perfect life for the middle size wallet is voracious.

And the food, did I mention the food? Where else would you taste the fresh and savory actual tomatos in the tomato sauce in the slice of pizza that is cut be squares and is paid for by weight? Where else would gelato or ice cream come with real strawberries? It is these little pleasures that make you wonder how one survives on the 5 minute devouring of a lunch by one's desk.

Life is truely beautiful and I plan on taking full advantage of it. All you need to do is live your life, not wait for the life to pass you by while you're on vacation. It's just not long enough.

How it all started...the freeflow of ideas, writing, potential...going back to Summer 1996

The hot, waterless desert
Hot humid summer is unbearable
Not enough fresh air to breath
The Rain is a little better
But it becomes even more humid,
I can barely breathe.
The fire - hot, red, and murderous.
The place I love is far away accross the ocean.
America is beautiful I wouldn't want to walk away.
Remember my grandma's farm.
Can only imagine the cemetery,
hardworking women, men,
War all over the world.
Never really ends,
always conflicts, problems.
The noise of the city unnoticeable
to some, unbearable to others.
War, fighting, death, torture.
We never lived long enough.
Those who come back are reborn.
Fighting, beating, violence.
Can't think when you want
to protect. Falseness, lying,
dishonesty. Only a dream fantasy,
never happened and never will.
Always want to be away at sea.
Can't think don't understand
Noise words doesn't make sense.
Bright light is followed by a
lunatic, noone knows the truth,
is unknown, unfamiliar, unearthly.

Planters v. Hunters

At a certain stage of life, when you're passed getting all the education that you planned on getting, and you have gone through your first full time job you start to think what is next. You already know that the next part of your life may determine the part after that, and the part after that. While you feel like you're planting a lot of seeds by starting a project here, a job their or volunteering in a third place, you sit and wait to see the results and the fruits of your labor.

In the meantime, you nurture the land, you water it, you take care of the offspring month after month, year after year until that one hopeful day someone is able to see that you have grown a flourishing masterpiece. As an impressionist painting, each independent stroke may not seem significant until the whole painting is completed, and then you get a Monet or a Van Gogh.

The alternative is being the one that goes after something with full force until the result is achieved. A quick fix. A hunter. If the result is good - when a hunter catches the prey and takes a proud photograph with the prey in one hand and the rifle in the other - it satisfies your necessity of that particular moment. You quickly move on to the next project, perhaps a new forest to hunt in.

If the result is not so good, you may or may not learn from this experience but still move on to your next 'prey.' While each project requires your full attention to be successful, your results and achievements, collected over time create the masterpiece. If you look at a Salvador Dali painting up close you see individual figures with their own expressions and context, but if you take a few steps back, together these images create a wholly different world.

We pick and choose where to seed and what to hunt after, yet we should all take a moment in our life to look at the masterpiece that we have created thusfar.

Some old time prose from 9/27/2000

Things I wonder when coming near.
What would it take to be so near?
Care and wonder is all I think of.
May be the latter will some day take off.
Nonsense I think, but nothing else to think of.
Image I see because there is nothing else to think of.
Someday I will come to a conclusion,
I do wonder if that’s even possible.

Anything is possible, the choices are limitless,
But what do we do in the meanwhile?
Every day flies, and another day comes.
Things go away so where is the fun?
Is it supposed to be, than what is the point?
Enjoy every day, but forget of the point?

Meaning we need unless we cannot function.
Function is questionable, existence is function.
World is so mere that it makes people wonder.
Wonder again, but the nature can thunder.

Choose recreation or choose to make money.
Choice is again a limitless wonder.
Think is a process, but can you survive it?
Thoughts and your own mind can make you lose your whole focus.
That is to say you have focus to begin with. Anything goes, or it seems, point the finger.

Candy and apple and childhood stories,
Why do we grow up, and why do we quarrel?
Love is a killer or at least certainly can be.
Life without love to some seems ungrateful.
But what do we do if there is nothing out there?
What we see in others is the only key to be aware.
Do we need to experience or is it enough just to see?
Share or stay focused on what you can do.
Love is irrational, so is a human.
Who should we trust?
Who should we trust if the world is so full of…

Networking opportunities at 'Smart Networking' events

You hear it everywhere. Experts are giving speeches and coaching lessons every day throughout the country. There is soon to be a networking degree program I am sure. I attended one of these networking events last night. Particularly, it was a networking event to teach you how to network in today's world of highest unemployment rates, employers who are hesitant to hire and changing ways we communicate.

The event was good, helpful, refreshing, giving hope to all those that are looking for new opportunities, transitioning careers or those that have been layed off 3, 6 or 12 months ago. The speaker emphasized the importance of setting yourself apart from the pile of thousands of resumes. As has been the practice of many generations before today, it is still who you know that gets you where you want to be. The only thing that may have changed is how you get to know that key 'who.'

The internet and social and professional sites are full of networking opportunities. You can be 'LinkedIn' to an industry group member on the other side of the country. You can find your old co-workers who are now on the other side of the ocean and classmates that are on a different continent. The world is really getting smaller.

Ironically these opportunities take us away from the people that are sitting right next to you or at least a few chairs away from you in that same room, at that same event looking for that same key 'who' person that would lead them to their next big opportunity. Yet, I was surprised that the organizers and the speaker did not make it a point to turn to your neighboor and give your '30 second' pitch to them. Isn't that the first step of networking?

It is a personal challenge to many of us to turn to a total stranger and feel comfortable even saying 'Hello' without feeling like a potential fool. Remaining focused, poised and direct becomes even more complicated. Even if you've 'linkedin' someone to your profile, there will nevertheless come a time when you may need to speak to that person on the phone to ask them your '3 key questions' or in person over coffee for an informational interview. These are still the real challenges that are becoming harder to face as we get into the comfort of the online communities.

Be brave, break the ice and soon enough you will be the one contacted for an informational interview!

The test of friendship?

What should happen if you are having a heated discussion with another person, a friend, who has opposing views and no room for budging them? Throughout the conversation you get angry, you get offended, you laugh, you make fun of others, or present other's views as examples of ideals to support your view.

Yet, it is hopeless. It is difficult to think like others, or to even try to figure out how others think, let alone follow their thought process in a way that makes sense to you. With opposing views and strong personalities, that almost never happens.

For this, thank you my friends. Thank you for challenging my views and my thought process. Thank you for trying to understand me, but being strong in your own opinions.

At the end of the day, even after a lengthy back and forth of typing, smily faces and exclamation points, nothing really changes about you or the person at the other end of the conversation. Surprisingly though, you just still feel better, you got it off your chest, you don't put in the back of your mind to be nice only to blow up at your friend two years later. You move on to talk about the things that you still agree on, or the things that make you happy, inspire you and make you feel accomplished. The end of this conversation is the real test of friendship.

Randomness...

Blue nail polish, sepia photographs, wooden smell and cold iced tea.



Spending the night at the parents. Wondering if you'll be 'laid-off.' Saying I love you. Filling an empty box with words. Ordering initials to be engraved. Feeling warm and comforted.