You follow the bird and he leads you too a small field. The rest of group continues on their way and you soon lose sight of them. You feel like you should follow the group, but you countinue to follow the small little bird. He leads you to a cave inside an old tree and you follow him inside.  Down many steps you go and he leads you to a small room with desk and a drawer. He looks at you and blinks and chirps for you to open the drawer. You open the drawer and inside is a glowing yellow wheel. It is small though. You pick it up and it sings to you.

``you have found the wheel that stores singing and secrets a prize for any to find

use it to reveal pathways and find what there is to find

For you are the only carrier and all others are really just fakes

Do not mistake it for another for some will surely do wrongly and lead you into swamps and

lakes`` 

You store the wheel in your pocket and the bird bows for some reason. Soon you rise back into daylight and are happy to do so. The inside tree cave was quite gloomy. The bird quickens his pace and you follow faster. Soon you come to a clearing and you see far in the distance the rest of the bird party making there way to circle of trees in the middle of a fast field of green. The bird gives one tweet and spreads his wings wide.  flutters away leaving you to catch up on your feet. You break out into a run and soon find the path that the convoy had just made. You dart across the field maneuvering over rocks and stumps and soon you are quite close to the bird party. The little bird glances at you but quickly looks away and signals with a wing tip for you to be careful. You are very quiet and sneak back into the line. The rest of the bird group seems unaware of your presence as you catch up to the group and you act as if nothing has happened. Soon you stand at the foot of 400 foot trees stretching up into the late afternoon sky. At the top of the tree there seems to be platform. The millions of birds break out into song once again and it is a beautiful song. It fills the field and things start happening. The birds clear out from around you and you notice a flower that is growing out the ground next to you is growing longer and longer. A bird mimics for you to grab the stem of the flower and you do so. Soon you realize the reason. The flower is not one flower, but a small branch of a flower tree and it is growing out of the ground with increasing speed. You are soon in fact lifted above the ground and your grip on the branch remains strong. The platform is slowly growing closer and seconds later you find yourself at its entrance. You step out onto it`s large wooden surface and soon all the birds surround you, but they are not on the plat form but flap their wings effortlessly surrounding the wooden surface.  They all gather around you and soon you are encased and take center stage in this world of birds. One single bird assumed to be the leader of the group you suppose enters the platform and ceases flying he comes up to you and speaks.

   ``I have learned the language through constant study and am one of the few. You can understand my language I do presume. Well here you are at our home plate in the sky a place for gatherings and joymaking arise. I present to you upon your welcome the wheel of secrets. It is our most sacred treasure and we would like to give it to you. You see the yellow glowing wheel that the bird pushes towards you with his beak. You try to find the small bird in the crowd of flapping wings. Do you take and touch the yellow Spinning wheel? 

So you stand your ground. You notice that all the birds are not only different colors, but are changing colors as well. The song is beautiful that they sing. There are no words but just sounds. They seem to tell the story of the forest around them and each note rings true. You stand there in awe listening and enjoying the sun as well. Just moments before snow filled your scenery and now green is everywhere you look. The end of the music comes and the birds clap their wings together. the biggest of the birds wears a crown on his head and he makes his way forward to you walking proud, beak raised high. He bows before you and in his wings is a letter that he places at your side.

``hello kindest friend that has listened to our beat

we welcome you to Forest Land and hope that you find it neat

fear not wise sir for you are in a land of green and breeze

we are the bird people of Sorowndow and only like to sing.

We sing secrets that help in other times that you can store if you have the wheel

We`d like you to join us at our tree top perch for some local food, a meal!``

You you do not pass up the request and follow your new bird friends. As you are walking through the forest a small bird comes behind and beckons for you to follow him off the trail. Do you follow him or remain with the group? 

Well you choose blue. You veer right and the trail descends down a hill. The snow becomes deep and pretty soon you find with every step that the snow is swallowing you whole. When you try to stop and retrace your footsteps you can`t and soon you`re free falling through endless snow, but you can breathe and you find that quite odd. Soon you are just falling through space and there is no snow around you, but then oddly the snow is starting to come back and your fall is being slowed down until your falling quite slow again and then you stop. You are completely covered in snow and you are quite glad to have your warm snow clothes still on, but you feel a breeze through your boots and oddly notice that your feet seem to be sticking in the air. With all your might you push yourself out of the hole and enter a green forest with millions of birds perched in the trees around you. The birds are every color imaginable and they are singing beautiful songs all in symphony. Immediately you strip off all of your warm clothes and adjust yourself to the warmer climate. There is no trail, but you do notice that there is a part of the forest where the birds aren`t gathering. Do you want to check out that area of the forest or remain at the spot you are at and listen to the symphony?

Here is the start of a story. Choose what color you want to go down and the story will countinue

You start out in a snowy forest. The snow falls down slowly and the whole world seems silent. Your breath steams up the air as you walk through. The trees are full with snow, but you are warm inside your snow gear. You have been walking for sometime and you hear the crunch of the snow as you make your way up the trail. Suddenly you come to 3 trails and you do not know which one to take. Each trail has a tree next to it and on the tree are different colored stars. There is a yellow star on the tree on the left, a green star on the tree in the middle and a blue star on the tree on the right. Which trail should you follow?

Understanding Ver Standing 2006/08/02

The boy tapped his pencil against his desk. He noticed the surface of the table was cool to the touch as he laid his palm against its surface. An idea popped into the boys head. "I wonder how it would feel if I laid my cheek against the table?" The curiosity of his thoughts took over. Soon his head was turned sideways with his cheek resting on the surface of the desk. He noticed his breathing moistneing the surface of the table. WIth each exalation he made, the texture of the surface of the desk turned to a wet darker appearance. Immediatly one thought crept into the boys thoughts. "tic tac toe game" Carefully, taking his pointer finger he drew a line through the wet space that his breathing had created on the desk. A dry line appeared down the middle of the wet condensation puddle. Another thought crept into the students brain at that precise moment. "tic tac toe requires 2 people" his eyes gazed upwards. The teacher was blabbering away. His eyes glanced at the school notebook beside him. Not many notes were jotted down. "there's got to ba better way to take notes, maybe if I write smaller that will focus my attention better" slowly his pen made out a "J" starting to spell the word juxtapostion. The teacher had reapetedly said this word and it bared some signifigance in the boys mind. Later that evening he would get home from class and would know with a quite amount of certainty that the word "juxtaposition" had some signifigance in that days lecture. The student righted himself from his slouched postion and tried to engage himself in the lecture.

With numbers flashing by 2006/07/25


both feet firmly placed on the floor and the steady humm of numbers in progress. I stay placed in an office chair with headphones wrapped around my head and classical music lulls me to words, which I will write down. Yeah I was planning on writing something down. I got my pen in hand and the yellow pad of paper in front of me was soon found as well. Yet as soon as I thought about the circumstances I figured I hadn't written in this time keeper for a while and thus felt the need I'd have a go. It's very peaceful here tonight. There's just the hum of an office and me and the slow taps as I put each letter into words onto this writing in front of me. I guess it is a peace of mind I am in right now. Music is touching my soul and and the piano crecendos into worlds of imagination as I sit here at my own piano and create music with words. It is important I do not think to much. That is a problem with many as with myself. I must not think to hard. Yeah that sounds about right.
There was a grand lightning show today. Flashes of light lit out of the corner of my eye as I focused on sleeping in green comforter that covers my sisters bed. The rain when it did come, came down in torrents in waves, created by the wind as the wind blew the the rain fell. Thunder struck quite close bam's and boom's and drums and cracks. The cat thought the end of the world had probably come. The halloween cat is what she turned into, puffed out like a blowfish eyes as big as eyes get. Ohh I have 30 miniutes until my job ends. Video editing is quite peaceful. It could be boring, but I like writing and thus right now the occupation seems to suit me well. Many odd jobs have entered into my life this summer. The restaurant bizz, the music bizz, and now the editing bizz. I'm a busy bee bzzzzzzz. Got to watch those sunsets, sunrises, moon shines. I've been doing that as well. Running to the tops of mountains to catch those or biking to lost distances. How's everybody else doing in this world tonight? Some are laughing I bet, some are jumping, some are dancing. Probably some are singing as well. I bet some are sleeping too, which means, some are dreaming. Probably some people are dreaming so heavily that they think they are in actuality flying, but will be rudely awakened when morning comes around. Let them enjoy that for now though. So here I sit listening to the ideas festival in Aspen CO on a computer surrounded by computers. I'm in the NASA space station of editing. There's so much machinery, I don't even know how to turn the whole system off. OR actually I do but it takes out 15 buttons or switches or latches. Well soon conclusions will made for tonight and another day tomarrow will come to have a countinuation of a pretty awesome wonderful life. Signing out to the lovely world,
happy trails

well then 2006/03/12


Yes I am well. Great day of skiing yesterday. We found the powder. Need I say more? Now I am procrastinating, pondering, and scrutinizing my world, which is fun. Morning is a good time for me. I'm awake, alert, energized and all other descriptions which do not define a comatose human being. At about 1 or 2 pm I go into a slumber. Keeping the eyes open is a stretch. After 7 or 8 pm suddenly I'm awake again. This comes at a cost. The later I stay up, the more tired I'll be in the morning. Ohh the cycle! usually before 12 is the official bedtime, but sometimes oh man....sometimes I go to bed after 12 and that happens, usually when I am procrastinating, pondering and scrutinizing my world, which happens a lot.

Here are some past Things

So here is some past writing. It`s all a time capsule!

times 2005/02/03


Everyday is a day to write, to think to ponder. Right now I sit at my computer desk jamming with my roomate to music. How can that produce such pleasure? Times like these you never know whats going to happen. Last night I went to yet a new climbing location. Caverns and inclines covered the rockclimbing gym. I felt as though I was in the canyons. Its was a grown ups jungle jim. Climbings for those people who never grew out of swingset. Oh those were the days, my squeaky swing set back home in Aspen, light pouring through the trees. There was good times on that swingset. It's not there anymore. It is now at another childs house where he or she is getting to explore the sets numerous bars and handles. The set is living on. Life is passing out onto a new realm. Navaste and Funk So Rubber

maybe another song 2004/12/20 



I'm really starting to enjoy the mogols because their challenging. I definitely want to get better at Teleskiing over Christmas so I'm trying to go as much as possible. Its dark outside now. If a painter was going to paint the valley at the moment he would use a lot o dark blues and purples, and maybe a hint of pink. Everything is still this evening. Maybe I'll write another song. What should it be about? All songs these days are about love, which does dominate the thoughts that are coming from the human mind, but there's other subjects to write about. How about a story song

One day a man decided to leave his house go away and explore

left his yard, left his town, and decided he wanted more

He ended down in Mexico and started a Second Hand Food

whenever people asked where he was from, he said I don't know, but my life sure is good



all he could remember was he had a dog named spot that could run like the wind

He treated the dog like a son, and wondered how the animal had been

He ran the store and drank green tea from the leaves growing out his back door

Until a girl stepped into his life and convinced him to explore more

Chorus:

she forced him to remember his past and the life that he had there

he remembered the memories, good and bad and admitted he still cared

as he sat with her under the stars so bright and told her of his ways

he spoke of a time and a place when he might go back and visit one day



Time went on and everything seemed perfect tell the day she left his face

he tried to get back to his life and the flow with which time paced

No matter how he tried his life wasn't going okay

So he left the lands and his store and remembered the vow he made one day

Chorus

he got back into town started where he left off and found his long lost friend

worked in town at an old bike shop and quickly remembered the trends

until one day a girl walked in from a past in the south where he had been

and she told him of a possiblity once again she said


   
Everything seems alright 2004/12/19



A song?:

Ask a girl walk'n down the street askin for something

can you see me with another girl

she walks down the street constantly humm'n

about a song that only girls can tell

She tells me I told her the meaning of life

how everythings perfect and their is no strife

how what you believe is you reality

isn't wierd the simplicity

Chorus:

As the day comes to a close and the moon starts its couse

a sunset paints across my mind and darkness fills the world

and every man and every being who has that light inside

wakes up every morning with that sense of pride

and love passes by



It takes anothers love to discover its way

how its pounds the mind and and heart each and every day

listen said the old man with the twinkle in his eye

don't worry about the past, instead ask why

Copywrite 2004

Because I Laugh

Laughing is only a good thing. There are no negative sides of laughing. What is laughing? Is it the act of making sound to acknowledge another persons action? Is it the uncontrollable sounds that the body makes when something incredible happens? Laughter is a wonderful entity, thank you laughter for being there.

I wish I could laugh for the rest of my life, just laugh, the instance of finding something so hilarious that I would never stop laughing. In early years I remember that seemed like it would happen. Something would be so comedic that whoever was involved in the laughter with me could not cease laughing. The sounds would die down and then a friend would make one grin and the laughter would commence and it seemed it would never stop. That痴 what they should do to make people lose weight. My stomach really hurt after all those laughing sessions. There are different kinds of laughter. Sometimes a joke causes some snorts and for a few seconds everyone痴 laughing. Usually, this laughter is short lived and everybody wants to hear another joke that痴 just as entertaining. The common loves to laugh. We all love hearing jokes. We all sound different when we laugh, sometimes it痴 the high pitched wail that could be crying, but the smile gives it away, other instances it痴 the common giggle. Another is a variety of both, a laugh that starts of as giggling then goes to high pitched wailing. My favorite is when the laughing doesn稚 make any sound. Something has to be very funny for this to happen. Their laughing so loud when this happens that no one hears it, and I mean nobody. All you see is a great big smile on their faces and time stops. Laughter痴 wonderful. I think if the whole world laughed constantly there would be no war. How is one able to shoot a gun when their doubled over laughing, or set off a bomb for that matter. Imagine the whole world laughing. That would be the talented comedian, the person who could say a joke that would make everyone in the world laugh. He would have to be an actor because there are a lot of different languages in the world so he would have a barrier to overcome. Laughter is the sound expression of love. It is the most friendly a person can be to another person and the two don稚 even have to know each other.

The only bad thing is laughing underwater. I did that scuba diving once and that痴 a bad idea. Not only do you use up a lot of oxygen air but all the divers around you crack up because you probably look pretty hilarious with bubbles exploding from your mask. The long and short of it is everyone starts laughing and then you have a sea bunch of divers and some confused fish. Maybe fish know how to laugh too. I致e never seen one laugh; they just really enjoy blowing bubbles. That痴 all they do their whole lives is blow bubbles and eat little things at the bottom of the ocean. Wouldn稚 that be a wonderful life? They must love their life blowing bubbles and eating. Oh, plus they get to see all the underwater marine life, which is beautiful. But laughing is a great pleasure. It痴 probably one of the greatest pleasures on the earth. It痴 the extreme sense of a smile. When a person is happy he/she smiles. Then when the happiness gets greater they smile a little wider and the eyes get involved. But then after that the body gets involved and pretty soon there you have it, laughter. Sometimes humans will fall out of their chairs because of laughter. They won稚 be able to control themselves. Some people die laughing.

That痴 how I want to leave, yes that would be perfect, to die laughing. One moment my mind is feeling wonderful and the next warm darkness. In fact, I bet that痴 all god does is laugh. That痴 probably why he can稚 answer all our prayers because he痴 always laughing. He痴 laughing so hard that he can稚 think straight to answer some prayers. We probably get up into heaven and start laughing really hard and realize how funny our interactions are with one another. Well, until one of those awesome laughter tantrums hits me again I wait in anticipation, what a positive subject to speak about. Laughter is real and amazing and it will forever be.

Just writing today 2004/05/12

Okay well today seemed like a good day to write. Its cloudy outside and basically nothing better to do. I'm one for writing songs. I love music and I like writing. Probably if I had the time I'd write novels. But I don't have the time so its simply a source of wanted thinking. Yeah, thats a good definition. Well for the past 3 days I've been taking the IB tests and now their over. Good riddance is all I can say about that. 4 hours of writing gives a good degree of writers cramp and basically your brain ceases to function after those 4 hours. Now I'm finished with testing and so what do I do. I write some more. Thats not making sense at all. Hmm write for 4 hours and then go home and write for fun. Except its not for fun its simply a way to pass time and make the mind think your getting something out of the way at the same time. Okay well now I will get to the subject of what I so desire to talk about on this cloudy day in the end of May. Kayaking. I love the sport. I will try to describe to the world a few hours on the river and I will bring you to my favorite spot to give you that experience. Oh yes this will be kind of fun. Okay well sit back and enjoy: "Whats the river running at today" I ask the man behind the counter. He replies "oh about 1600 give or take a few cfs marks" Everyones excited. I'm with my friends and were about to run Shashonie, a section of river in Colorado known for its great wave play. Doors shut and we pull off onto the freeway. Soon the section of river comes into view. The best way to imagine this section is a water park where talent is required. A series of waterfalls dip into calm afternoon pools and the reflection of the green trees gives the surface an orange glow. We soon turn off on the exit ramp and soon were in the parking lot ajaccent to the river. The place is packed today. Boaters from miles around kayak this river everyday and numerous vehicles are parked in the small lot. Every vehicle is a good vehicle to transport kayaks to and from the site. One time I saw a porche with two kayaks strapped to the top. Ewwwww easy on the paint job. Oh well what ever floats your boat and gets you down the river. Any way onto the river. After the shuttles have been run and everything is just hunkydory we scramble across some rocks and enter our kayaks. Were a group of about 5-10 people entering the not so warm waters of the colorado. Its a hot day where water is welcome and everyone has a smile on their face. We enter the water and paddle upstream about 500 yards to warm up. Just the act of being in a kayak is exilerating. Your strapped into a plastic stick, given a paddle and wished the best of luck. Sounds like one of those sports that a Scots man would invent. Pun off of Robin Williams. So we goin to strap you into a plastic structure and send you down river. oh like sea kayaking. F**k no we put you in some rough water and let you swallow some water for a while. Yeah well any way that was off the point so where was I. Ahhh yes. Okay so when your in a kayak it brings you down to the level of the water. You feel every wake that the current produces and you use your hips to manuver as well as a paddle for support. Now running the river is half the fun. The other half is what is called play boating. This entails surfing, cartweeling, playing in hole features and a whole bunch of other stuff. I paddle up to the current sway my hips back and forth and then thrust my hips forward the boat goes vertical and then you balence on the edge for a period of time and then switch ends. This may seem boring, but it is a great feeling. Surfing is another great thing to do. You paddle up to a wave and and then the current takes a hold of you and picks you up and the whole current of the river is flowing under your boat and theres a rushing in your ears and your carving through natures butter using your paddle and your just feeling the energy.Thecurrent moves so fast that a current produced wind blows across your face. I love surfing river waves. Then there's those momements where its you in a canyon and canyon wall tower on either side of you and the only sound in the soft stirring motion your paddle makes with the water. Every once in a while a bird will fly over head scaling the canyon walls. Its just a great experience. Well back to to my group. After warming up in a slow current we continue downstream. I say to Weston. "okay here we go" and immediatly I drop over the falls huge waves crash over my boat and each rollar wave is like a rollar coaster. Its an adreniline rush. Thats what it is. A drop of 30 feet over 20 meters of river. The roar of white water fills your ears and you punch through each wave each time gaining speed. Your boat becomes a bullet and you punch through the water until your sitting in a calm pool below looking up at the tangled mess you just went through. Then you see your friend get pounded by a wave and get flung 5 feet up in the air before riding a column of white white water down to another huge wave. And then David decides to skip the waves altogether and you see him thrust himself off a rock wall frothing with current and his boat enters the white abyss and dissapers for a few moments before popping up a little down stream. Rapid one is over with. High fives are exchanged and the convey moves down river. We eddy out behind a rock. Eddy out means to take a rest behind a rock where there is no current and the water remains calm as you watch the current flow past you. We try cartwheels and talk about the previous wave and look forward to what is to come. Westons says " aww man I got pummled in that last wave, I was down for about 5 seconds there at the mercy of the river and then the current rolled me back up. David basically has I similar story as he describes his submarine adventure and his cliff jumping experience. We continue down the river and enter a section called rock island. These are a whole bunch of rocks that the kayaker has to manuver around Is fun because its like going through an obstacle course. You manuver around each rock and lean either to the left or right to innitiate a turn. You squeeze by rocks and your boat whips around turns. Once that section is over the "All Day Wave" rumbles in the distance. The wave is a huge foam pile which is probably the best surfing wave in the river. A huge foam pile circulates like a washing machine and your main goal is to catch this feature and enjoy the ride. I approach the foaming heart of the wave and my paddle strikes the water like a turban. Then I feel myself being sucked into the waves center and my boat bounces over the water. The wave makes the sound of a train and a 15 foot foam pile of white water ecases your boat and propells it towards an unknown destination. You feel like you are going 500mph but really only the rivers going that fast. Using your hips you manuver and carve turns in the waters surface and the sun glistens on the top of the wave as time seems to stop. You feel your heartbeat matching the rythem of the current and then you are truely free. Of course the wave spitts you out and usually you try to catch it once more. Your friends take their try at catching the wave and a tapping of a paddle between your mates is always a must if somebody catches it. Yeah man "I was on for 1 miniute there, oh that was swwweeeeeeeeeeeet" and then the group moves on. One more rapid is left. And I've seen david do summersalts over the waves because the current was so strong. Well as the last rapid ends everybody comments on the run and reflects on "good times" then the take out is in sight so we eddy out, struggle out of our kayaks which have no seemed to have attached themselves to our bodies and become one with our legs. Lets just say walking isn't too easy for the first 5 minites. We load up the Kayaks and pile into our vehicles, turn on the the music and start the 1 hr drive back home. The sun is usually setting on the river and the whole vally lights up sending a pulse of light down the river bank and displaying a rainbow of different colors on the waters edge. It was a good day.

What to Write

What Do I write about today? What inspires the mind to write? Do we write because we feel the need to express our thoughts, maybe? Or is the process of writing down words and engaging the brain a great pleasure to humans? For whatever reason most people write. Yes I believe that. Even if they don稚 come right out and say to the world, yes I write, they do. Sometimes even a short note can change a day. I happen to be the creative writer type. Facts are important and analyzing papers is probably necessary, but I love when the mind wanders. It is doing so now. I sat down at my computer this morning and basically had nothing to say. Now as I type, I知 finding I do actually have an opinion to today. My opinion just happens to be condensed into a very simplistic form. For this whole paragraph I have been asking or pondering 努hy is it people write?�And in essence, after asking myself all the above questions I feel confident I have found an answer. The answer cannot be expressed because then I would be considering a fact, which really just isn稚 possible in creative writing. I love comedy. That痴 the beauty of creative writing. If I was doing an analysis, I would have to press the return key before switching to the new topic of comedy. However, in creative writing, or more in this particular piece of literature I have changed topics about 7 times to be exact. Anyway, comedy is the topic I am speaking about so now I will get down to business and focus. I love reading comedy. Bill Cosby, Robin Williams. Ellen Degeneres. I sometimes sit in book stores and read the comedy selections and just laugh. Other people may think I致e gone crazy, but I say at least I致e changed their day, so what can you do? I love how in one of Ellen Degeneres books she refers on how by making the words ALL CAPITALIZED IT MAKES THE READER THINK THE WRITER IS MAD. Well what if the writer is not mad but is simply taking the public speaking cue to 都peak up�and only wants to be heard. I COULD WRITE THE REST OF THIS PAPER IN CAPITALIZED LETTERS AND THE TEACHER WOULD PROBABLY GLANCE AT THE WRITING AND AUTOMATICALLY THINK ONE OF TWO THINGS. SHE WOULD THINK, WOW HE担 GOT GRAMMER ISSUES, OR, BOY HE担 REALLY MAD. I樽 ACTUALLY WRITING IN 鼎APS LOCK�JUST TO PROVE A POINT, OR TO BE HEARD, WHATEVER. I guess my introductory paragraph is now seemingly the bulk of the whole paper, of which I am writing today. Since we are on the topic of comedy I will tie comedy in with propaganda. The whole reason for comic propaganda痴 success in the media world is because it痴 humorous. For instance Borgmans, 泥eer Field Mall�comic is quite laughable. Now I will go into an analysis, back to reality.

The CAPITAL LETTERS TALK ABOVE TURNED OUT TO BE IMPORTANT. The last panel on the deer field mall cartoon displays in CAPITAL LETTERS the words 泥EER FIELD MALL�across the mall building. Now in this case I think Borgman was mad. He finished drawing the previous 2 panels and now he realized he was steaming with anger. So he took his big black pen, marker, or tool and emphasized his dislike for the Deerfield Mall by displaying it in Caps Lock. Yes, he was mad. Or maybe he wasn稚 mad and simply wanted to be heard. For whatever reason unlike the sign for coffee shops, and other small convenience stores around small towns, he put that message in capital letters. It meant something to him. I have reason to believe he values preservation.

So all and all this paper has been random thoughts, although we did get down to business and talk about some propaganda and comedy subjects, which was important. I say authors should write in capital letters whenever they feel like it, for whatever reason. All people write, you might as well be heard.

Dancing

What are people? What are we? Living here in this place gives me lots of time to ponder the world. I`m in a weird situation where I am interestingly removed from the world and yet not. I therefore have lots of time to ponder existence. What are we? I know that 23 years ago almost 24 years ago I entered this place. to put it into perspective I have now almost circled the sun 24 times and spun a whole bunch. I don`t think we are to find the answer to this question of what we are. The world is so old and universe is even larger and we are just a part of the story. It is amazing I feel that we coexist so sensitively with these things that we for the first time can ponder our existence. When say ``we`` I refer to us the human being and our ability. Let us not think too hard about these things because it confuses my mind whenever I think about them and I think it may do the same to you. The biggest part of living in another country is the fact that I am able to witness how people in another part of our world live. In many ways we live in very similar ways. In fact all in all the difference is so small. Every human in the world shares 99.999 % of the same stuff and yet we are different! That is precisely why I use the word ``sensitive`` to describe us. I have gotten somewhat used to life in the place where once my family of old thrived. I bow at every door take my shoes off when entering the school or my home and say certain Japanese phrases when leaving, after eating, or greeting a home. The fact remains through my learning and which I consider now is that people that live in different places and practice culture have lived in that particular way for a very long time. Everybody has a different dance. We all have a different dance. 

blue Stuff

    

Lately I've been trying to figure out what is the best food to eat in Japan. Right now I have to say my favorite for convenience and taste is none other then lovely Japanese rice and Nori. Now this idea and it's origin actually don't take place in Japan. When I was a little kid sometimes I would come home from school and there would be my dad sitting in his chair with a big bowl of white rice. I would look at him inquisitively and he upon noticing my reaction would reply "you don't know what this is?" this is GREAT!" and I was introduced to a little of Japanese culture right then and there. Nori is seaweed, but what I'm talking about is a paste called Gohandesuyo. It is seaweed, but also has other yummy things in it. "You just take a little bit of rice like this with your chop sticks" my dad would show me "and then a little rice" and by now my sister had come to see the attention or was there the whole time in her pink pajamas, she was three or four " "and then you take the rice and put them together and there you have it dinner. I love this dinner for a couple reasons. My house is an ice box! the kitchen and the bathroom is an icebox. The rest of the house is fine, but let's just say my toothpaste freezes and once you have frozen toothpaste it kind of changes the toothpaste. Therefore my trips to the kitchen are always done in a hasty fashion and some personal coaxing is needed to venture into the location. The lovely dinner, snack is a favorite of mine and has been used my times with perfect success.

The winter is starting to retreat now I can feel the icy fingers retracting and I now want to go experience some more skiing. I will have to do so soon. Recently I have also just been to Sendai, which has been a desire of mine since I first learned of its proximity to my Naraha home. Sendai has a good feeling to it. It was very cold when Iyo and I went so we spent most of the time darting to warm places in search of warm food or things to do in warm locations. It is quite entertaining to people watch in Japan I still have not tired of simply the past time of watching Japanese daily life pass. Slowly I am comprehending more and more of the conversations taking place, but still I find difficulty of taking many conversations at once and making sense of them. For instance when we were walking around Sendai I had no clue what the women at the front of the store was shouting at the top of lungs repeatedly. It was apparent she was selling something. There is a lot of oratory advertising that goes on in Japan. I look forward to returning to Sendai when it is warm!

So now I have been in Japan for about 7 months. It is amazing how quick life changes. Sometimes I feel like just yesterday I was pushing my nose to the plastic window pane of a 747 watching the Denver lights twinkle in the distance. At other times my other life appears as a distant dream that gives me a smile and a twinkle to my eye when I think about it. I have just experienced skiing for the first time in my prefecture. I was able to go with my town and boarded a bus last Saturday at 5:30 in the morning with 20 or so other members of the Naraha town district. There were children and adults all there freezing in the middle of a freezing parking lot at 5:30. We arrived at the ski resort some 3 hours later and by the time everybody piled off the bus the environment had turned to the familiar winter scene. It was dumping snow! It was cold and a little windy and I was glad to have many warm layers on. Before everyone got on the slopes we all warmed up together. We touched our toes and then wiggled our hips and did all this in ski boots and full wear with 30 mph winds blowing snow. I loved it! It soon became apparent to me that I was one of the only ones in this group of people who had skied frequently before and so the day started off with me teaching lessons to some cute little kids in Japanese. After some time of this my friend Kosei suggested that I strike off on my own and explore Adatara mountain. Kosei was a pretty good skier himself having done so a lot in college and so I tallied forth and picked a random lift which I made out to be "Green Lift" in Japanese characters. Somehow the town had gotten my size right perfectly. The ski's that I rented were 1980's Rossignols, but I was happy and powder hungry. The mountain was quite small pretty comparable to Abasin in Colorado, but had some nice terrain on it and the snow was perfect. After taking a few runs I had the feeling that lunch time was growing near and so I struck out for the hut where the Naraha Town group was meeting for lunch. This was one of the highlights of the day. I took my ski's off and and opened the hut door and huge ramen bowls and steaming plates of curry were all around me. It was time to eat! I put my 600 or so yen into the vending machine (6$) chose what I thought looked good and what I could kind of read and then my ticket popped out and I waited in line. The cooks were cooking bowls of noodles in giant pots that could have been small hot tubs and the steam tried to warm the whole room as people passed in and out into the cold outside blizzard. My bowl finally came and the bowl was seriously the size of my head or maybe even larger and full of steamy noodles. I ate it right up slurping along with everybody else and my friend Kosei handed me a beer as well. It was a celebration of steam! Soon lunch was finished and Kosei who had been teaching lessons for the morning wanted to ski with me and I was itching to see what the mountain had to offer. We piled on our gear and headed for the Gondola. The mountain was small, but they did have a Gondola to the top more advanced portion of the mountain. A girl joined our group as well and her name was Hidoko.

The cold air bit our face as we arrived at the summit. The snow was deep and no one was on the mountain. There were some people, but powder was everywhere. Kosei was a pretty good skier as well as Hidoko and we all got our share of powder on our ski clothes by the end of the run, which is a SPO (Successful Powder Objective) Soon the day was over as the road back home was predicted to be very snowy indeed and indeed it was. I caught up on sleep on the way back as did everybody else and so gladly lost track of time, but it did take us some 5 hours to return to Naraha and when we arrived some sparkling snow had greeted even our town.

It is amazing how you start start talking about one thing and you go on about a complete side story. Anyway, yes life has changed indeed and Japan as the rest of world continues to change naturally.

Mind Down

Sitting out on a grassy plain

Watching lights and the wind again

Waiting for the storm

And I really wanna hear the words that I hear

When mind when my mind comes down

People say when you go to sleep

Coming from that simple place

Hear those simple words

That I wanna say and see and be

Balloon shines in a water show

Sparkling colors find colors in what everybody knows

Everyone knows how the flower grows

Balloon shining

Sunset Colors

Sitting out on a grassy plain

Watching lights and the wind again waiting for the storm

And I really wanna hear the words that I hear

When my mind when my mind calms down

Dirt

The bus that came abruptly stopped right in front of the boy and a long haired girl stepped off the bus to adjust her belongings and the boy boarded and she boarded after the boy. The girls name was not yet known, but she sat across from the boy on the bus and both of them stared out their windows and watched the forest pass by. As was said though, this was no ordinary bus and soon the bus started sinking into the earth until soil was at the windows and the forest and the trees disappeared from view and the bus burrowed through the soil at such high speeds that the girls hair swished across the girls face many times making her make many adjustments with her hands to keep her eyes visible. Above the ground it was silent. `` You know where we are going?`` the boy asked the girl. The girl replied ``no`` The town of Zinal lay on the edge of the forest, but this was no ordinary forest as you may be gathering and the bus slowly was gathering speed getting closer to Zinal every moment of every second. ``What is your name`` the boy asked the girl and the girl replied ``Dirree`` ``and what is your name`` the girl asked the boy. ``my name is Dover`` In his lap the boy clutched a book and on the book were stars and the stars moved constantly zig-zaging and hopping and jumping. The book was a frenzy of movement, although it stood still clasped in the boys hand. The girl looked at the book clutched in the boys hands and the boy saw her gaze and saw her question and replied ``aw for training`` and the girl smiled. The bus ripped through the ground at such high speeds that it turned yellow like the sun and glowed and sped up to go even faster. The boy and the girl smiled`` time for the treats`` they thought probably. When their thought passed and the entity of time that it takes for another thought to come to mind the bus burst to the surface and stopped at a bus stop in Zinal. People burst forth from doors and many sounds could be heard all around and many people talked about many things in the streets. Some were in fact selling apples and others clothes, but that is only as important as the fact that the girl that stepped off the bus that day had long hair.

What do you write

A boy sat out tapping his foot on an old piece of wood. Every time he tapped the piece of wood the piece of wood flinched a little and he repeated doing so. The air was cold and every breath made a misty fog that hung in the air for a few moments before escaping into the breeze. He rubbed his hands together to stay warm and he waited. He tapped his foot on the piece of wood because every time he tapped, the wood made a nice hollow sound against the ground. It gave a pleasant thump and so he continued to tap away. The boy was in a forest and a single road crept through this forest and here at this spot was a bus stop and that is precisely where the boy waited and continued to tap his foot against the piece of wood that made such a wonderful hollow sound. He was going to training at this early hour in the morning and here was the spot where he had to wait. Now this was no ordinary bus that the boy waited for. This was the Zinal Bus headed to the one and only Zinal. Zinal lay on the edge of the forest by the great lake of Kinal. Zinal and Kinal were brothers, but that is too much information to be telling anyone right now. The boy countined to give pleasant thumps to the forest and at that moment that was all that was heard.