Slick’s Summer Escapade

Last summer Slick helped me out with a Soundslides project for school titled, “Sights and Sounds of Summer.”  Slick rummaged through people’s yard’s, slipped in and out of Seattle’s beaches and parks, played with the children, engaged in summer sports at Green Lake, captured the sunsets and spied on the moon for a couple of weeks straight. Slick knew he would have to retire to his abode soon and decided to absorb as much as he could before his hibernation. His trip through Seattle with me was a great success as he did a great job. He was so proud of his accomplishment that he asked me to share his memories with you. Hope you enjoy!

Six word story:

Slick ambushes Seattle’s summer in Soundslides.

Seeing the World Through the Eyes of Slick

It’s winter in Seattle and another typical day elapses in the dark and claustrophobic bag where Slick, my Canon 60D DSLR camera, lays slumber in. The days are succinct and usually the nights are full of neglect and despair. Another couple of months and Slick will resurrect from winter hibernation. Until then, and while his lens cap gives him shuteye, he will continue to hallucinate and fantasize of all the sights he is capable of penetrating with his immaculate lenses.

As soon as the flowers start to bud, Slick will blossom from his dark cocoon.  With his superior eye sight, he will once again capture the beauty of the world which he yearns to perceive. His lenses are so tenacious; he makes the human eye seem surrendering. At a speed of 5 frames per second, Slick abducts details at a rate in which the human brain could not conceptualize, or the human eye can even seize. Harboring the world’s pulchritude in its most abundant form is what Slick was created to achieve.

Slick loves to journey whatever chance he procures. Living in Seattle has its limitations for leisure due to the weather and Slick’s time is too scarce to take for granted. During the early hours, he journey’s to the east for a glimpse of the newborn day. He zooms in on the thin white thread of the aurora with his omnipotent zoom lens. As the day progresses, he briskly chases a school of birds in the sky as they migrate towards their abundance. With his macro-lens, he zooms in on a grasshopper resting on the wet morning dew and seizes the detail of its intriguing face.  

Slick is always amazed with the busy city life. He loves the details of the down-town scene and nabs people as they canter for the bus. He quickly focuses on the monorail as it glides down 5^th avenue. He ventures to Pike Place Market and bags the fishmongers while they launch fish to one another as if they’re playing a game of football and giving away touchdowns to their loyal fans. Slick then flees to the pier to secure the ferries as they embark into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The seagulls lament and Slick snatches one as it spreads its wings ascending into the horizon.

One of his favorite excursions is the beach. In sports mode, Slick loves to scan the jet skis as they conquer the waters in front of him. Through his wide angle lens, he arrests the magnificent sun before it capsizes into the ocean. He apprehends the luscious colors of the sky during the first few minutes which the night is conceived. He alludes to the full moon arising and apprehends its magnificent detail with his long range zoom lens.

Before Slick retires to his abode, he spends a few minutes contemplating the stars. He commandeers Venus, for she is his favorite. They reciprocate flashes amongst one another as if having an intimate conversation. As he starts to relinquish her, Slick turns back for one last look saturating Venus’ beauty with his lens so that he may repose in serenity until they rendezvous again.

Joseph’s First Black Friday

The lines are ridiculously long at Best Buy and it’s 10:30pm just before the Black Friday madness. I’m in the car with an 8-year-old boy who’s extremely excited to get his X-box deals yet as soon as he sees the chaos awaiting him, the excitement in his eyes turns to despair.

This year my family and I had Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s Fiancé’s house. She has two younger brothers, an 8-year-old and 5-year-old. Joseph, the 8-year-old is an Xbox crazed fanatic. His eyes are glued to the Best Buy ad from this years Thanksgiving edition of the Seattle Times. Gadgets galore fill his eyes with frenzy and jumps up and down asking his mom if he can go. Of course his mother prepared Thanksgiving dinner and has no energy left to clean up, let alone stand in dreadfully long and cold Black Friday lines. The answer was a big fat no. Joseph turns to his Dad and before he could say one word his Dad simply shook his head no.

I asked Joseph what he wanted and he started to ramble on a long list of things speaking at 80 miles per hour. I laugh and ask him to slow down. I said I was going but I’ll probably be really late and I’m sure his parents wouldn’t appreciate him coming home at the crack of dawn. His mother than spoke out and said it was ok and was actually excited at the fact I was going and could take him along for the ride. I contemplated taking him with me for the mere fact of dragging an 8-year-old boy around town and through store lines till dawn yet I felt bad as he was so anxious and I agreed to take him along to not disappoint him.

We left his house close to 10:30 that evening. We jump on I-5 North headed to Alderwood mall. Traffic suddenly stops a mile before the exit. The madness had already started before we even reached the mall. Car’s were cutting in last minute at the exits, horns blasting and voices jumping out car windows. Joseph was excited and eyes wide open itching to start his tour.

We finally made it to Best Buy and decided to skip out on the lines which wrapped around the outer walls of the store. They had a 46inch Flat screen for $200.00 as a door buster and obviously not enough for everyone in line. We hopped over to Walmart and luckily no lines to get in. As soon as we got into the actual store though, everything Joseph wanted was sold out. Even if we found what he wanted we would have been in line all night trying to figure our way out of the disastrous mazes created as lines to pay. What a mess. We then drove to Target, same thing, no luck but at least no long lines. We made our way back to Best Buy at 2am. Joseph was fatigued but as soon as we got in, he woke up real quick to the music in the store and the positive atmosphere for a change.  

I ended up finding what I wanted and Joseph’s eyes became full of optimism. We hurried over to the game section and found the titles he wanted, just not on Xbox, only Nintendo and PS3. It’s 4am and Joseph was acting like a zombie. Poor kid, I felt bad he didn’t find anything so I promised I would go to a different mall the next day and get at least one of the items he wanted.

Even though he went home empty handed, he was happy to have had the experience of his first Black Friday excursion. I dropped him off at his house at 4:30am. His mom had fallen asleep waiting up for him but finally opened the door for him with a big smile on her face. She was happy he got the experience. She was even happier that she didn’t have to suffer on Black Friday and found someone else to chaperone. I didn’t mind though; let’s just say it was an educational experience.

American Students Participate in Egyptian Revolution

Another week of student protests in the news except this time from over 3,000 miles away. In Cairo, Egypt, three American exchange students studying at the American University of Cairo were arrested Monday, 11/21/11 during a protest. This protest was definitely not a silent one as the three students were accused of throwing Molotov cocktails from the AUC campus rooftop.  

Derek Sweeney, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, MO., was arrested on Monday, 11/21/11 along with Gregory Porter, a 19-year-old Drexel University student from Glenside, PA., and Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student from Bloomington, IN. According to the New York Times, the students are in police custody for questioning and have representation from the American Embassy. Seems the men were all supportive of the Egyptian’s quest for democracy and got caught up in a violent clash between civilians and authorities. I’m sure they’re quite nerve wracked because I have dealt with authorities in Egypt and they’re no fun, I’ll tell ya that much. But in a situation like this, I’m guessing they’ll be fine considering the ties between Egypt and the U.S. are quite friendly.

Six word story:

American students, Russian bombs, Egyptian revolution.

UC Davis Students Pepper Sprayed During Peaceful Protest

One of American citizen’s greatest rights here in the USA is the right to free speech. Our first amendment is one of a vast number of reasons American citizens love this country. But if silent speech warrants police to pepper spray those who voice their opinions in a silent protest, then our first amendment seems to be flawed a great deal.

 On November 18^th, 2011 a number of students at UC Davis University protested the rising cost of tuition and millions of dollars in budget cuts. The students simply wanted their voices heard to get the attention of lawmakers and the University that they deserve an affordable education. It’s one thing to raise tuition, but to punish those Americans who voice their opinions by placing their valuable health in harm’s way, is simply un-American.

According to the Washington Times, UC Davis police Chief Annette Spicuzza stated that the police had no choice but to pepper spray the students as they were surrounded. There were no reports of the students being violent or displaying any harm or threat towards the police. The way the students are described to have been acting was that they were simply sitting together with hands interlocked while onlookers screamed for police to stop harming them. As soon as the video of the incident hit the internet, students and faculty called for UC Davis’s chancellor Linda Katehi to resign for her role in requesting the police to disperse the students.

What does this say about our constitution and our right to free speech? What message does this incident send to our children about their future, goals and aspirations? I don’t know about you, but after seeing the incident online, the explanation given by police doesn’t seem to match the images presented on the video or even come close to warranting such abominable action. Take a look for yourself, and you decide…

Six Word Story:

Tuition rises, students speak, police beat.

 

Kidney Stone: The Express Train from Hell

It’s Sunday night, I’m at home and in my room resting instead of out playing basketball with the guys. I’ve actually been in bed most of the day in a moderate amount of pain. I woke up Thursday morning at 5am and was having the most harrowing and caustic experience one can imagine. I could barely move except double over and lay there in a fetal position clutching the left side of my abdomen with my right arm while clenching onto the side of my bed with my left hand. I was going nuts from the pain. What I was experiencing was what every man fears most, I was passing a kidney stone.

I’ve been injured before, broken bones, had a few surgeries without anesthesia, wisdom teeth removed, shocked by electricity, you name it. But this kidney stone tops them all by far. From Thursday at 5am until midnight the pain was constant at a level of ten. It was so bad that I could not get myself to get up and go to the doctor to get something for the pain which would not go away for the life of me. When I drank water it made it even worse because it would push the stone through the ureter. It was like getting mugged  by an express train and robbed of my dignity. Can you imagine pushing a stone through a tight tube in your body? Doctors compare this pain to a woman giving child birth. At least during child birth epidurals are used to ease the torment and are only in labor once a year. Men can have stones up to several times a year. I think I’d rather give birth to quadruplets with an epidural.

I was finally able to go to the doctor Friday. Confirmed it was a kidney stone when the results came back from the urine test. The pain was still there which meant I was still passing the stone. Luckily for me it was breaking up and not coming down like a marble through a straw. I was given pain killers, a strainer to urinate in to catch the stone for labs and a note to be off work and school till tomorrow. The doctor said it may take that long for the stone to completely pass. I thought to myself, great, there goes my weekend. I get to anticipate world war III with my gut as the battlefield for the next few days.

I was given some advice for the future though. I was told that if I ever feel an aching pain in my back, slightly higher up than a “normal” back ache, then I know I’m about to have a kidney stone. Great! That’s such awesome advice! Not. Problem is there’s no instant way to prevent it. I have to change my diet by not eating red meats, can’t have soda or coffee and need to exercise and drink tons of water. I sit at a desk all day at work, and then basically in another desk the rest of the night at school and lay down for when I’m asleep. Doctor says this allows matter to sit in my kidneys and not dissolve properly. But what am I supposed to do with this advice? Stand up all day at work and do jumping jacks while attempting to type at my desk? Or run in place while I’m in class at nights? Maybe I’ll hang upside down like a bat when it’s time to sleep.  It’s nice to know when I’m going to have another kidney stone, but not so nice knowing that when I get hit by that express train again, I won’t be able to jump out the way. Maybe I’ll invest in “stone proof” vest to prepare for my next kidney shoot out. Who knows? One thing’s for sure though, I am definitely not looking forward to another kidney stone. Fortunately, I think I passed the last of it tonight as a little white rock hit the strainer on my last bathroom trip.

If there’s anything I learned at all from this experience is that my kidneys are my new best friends. I will always have the highest respect for them and treat them with kindness and all the love they deserve. Because if I don’t, boy can they hold a grudge!

If you haven’t had a kidney stone yet, and want some general advice on how to prevent a kidney stone from occurring at all, check out this article on AskMen. It might cause that express train to take a detour from passing by your neck of the woods.

Six word story:

Respect your kidney, or writhe wretchedly.

Rapper Heavy D Dies the Day After Joe Frazier

Rapper, Heavy D died yesterday, November 8th, 2011 from a heart attack just one day after legendary boxer, Joe Frazier passed. Two famous black people die from health factors under short notice. If that’s not ironic enough, what’s even more ironic here is Heavy D sends  Twitter messages just before his final tweet paying tribute to Joe Frazier. His final tweet was “Be Inspired.”