Christmas Cards

Everyone loves getting mail. For some reason, us humans love it when letters and cards come to our little mailbox. Letters from familly, cards from long, lost friends. Mail is the last form of communication which we really treasure alot, and the last form to show someone we really care.

This winter, being foolishly ambitious, I decided to send christmas cards out, to my good friends from camp, and other friends that I usually don't see over the course of the year. And there I was for four weekends slaving away, writing witty letters, running to the post office, collecting addresses.

It was a long journey, but I finally finished the week before christmas, and that was the magical weeks that cards started pouring into our house.

It is a nice thought to send out cards, but you feel even better when someone has taken the time to send you a nice card, or to write something funny/an inside joke/or just a signature.

But what really warmed my heart, was a homemade card I recieved from a friend in Texas. She obviously put some time into it, with homemade origami on the front, and a long note in red crayon inside.

These gestures are what the holidays really are about. Not presents or material goods, but an homemade card with origami, is what made my christmas.

My hair

My hair is like most teenager's hair. It is unique, it is one of a kind. And it reflects me. Most days, I wake up, and my hair is a mess. I don't how, or when it happens but sometime in the night my hair starts having a mind on of its own. As a guy, however, I don't pay that much attention to my hair.

You would think that I would be mad that I have such uncontrolable hair. But I am quite okay with it. Despite the mornings waking up and seeing a monster in the mirror, I just shrug it off. Je suis comme je suis. I am who I am. And I quickly comb it down before realizing (usually) that I'm late for school, and then I drop everything for a quick breakfast, etc....

My hair is part of the story of my life. It is a very unique part of me. Even after the bad hair days, and the even worse hair cuts, I am confident of myself as a person. Je suis comme je suis. I am who I am.

Shiny objects etc...

Alas it was the start of a new day. It was just another holiday day...Somewhere between sleep and the computer lay me...So suddenly, my family decided it was time to clean house. No it wasn' t your ordinary new years resolution done early, or a guest showing up. No it was really a "CLEAN HOUSE" type of day.

You see, I moved to a slice of surburbia about six years ago, and my family has never finished unpacking. Our basement was a monument to boxes, scientific papers, old first grade projects, and most of all the unfinished state of our lives. And it was there, sandwhiched in between macroni paintings and cursive worksheets lay a small mirror. It was there from some science fair project long, long back. And it still had never been used. The paper backing was still there. It was waiting for something to happen.

And I realized at that moment that the mirror was like a button. No it is not supporting a party, or saying something fashionable. But it reflects something. I was thinking about walking around school with a little mirror button, and letting everyone see themeself as a statement. The more I thought about it, I realized that in this world people are so worried about what others think about them. We worry about it not because we trying to find some mate, or trying to show off to our friends, we worry because its hard wired into our brains. Thats life. Until we find ourselves, we can not be confident.

So I decided to stow the mirror on my nightstand. The world may never be able to see itself. Ever.

This is the story of my life

I've been looking at this blog, and what I have written about in the last three years, and I realize that this is not about "the middle school life" or "life is beautiful". This is truly the story of my life. Every so often I post online about life and everything else in our world. It is the story of my life and it is our world's story blended into this very blog. As I type these words, I hope that you, the reader are having a wonderful holiday, and I would like to tell you once more, Life is beautiful.

Another year...

We are, suprisingly almost at the end of 2006. 2006 for me was a wonderful year, and a year I will always remember and cherish.

In 2006, I lived my life to the fullest extent. I went to CTY (nerd camp), I started the new and improved MSTnetworks.com. This year is also a year that I have contributed to this wonderful blog, and the renaming to "Life is beautiful."

But what makes this year amazing was the people that I met. Everywhere I went, I met the most wonderful extraordinary people. Nowadays I have friends everywhere from Taiwan to Texas. What makes life worth living are the people that you truly cherish and love.

We must always look to the future, and I hope that 2007 will be an even better year for me and the world. I wish to all of you a merry christmas and a even an happier new year.

-Mstcn

Why do I blog?

On the randomshapes forum website (Random Shapes is a teen blog network) posted that question and I thought about it.

Why do I blog?

I blog because it lets me talk to the rest of the world, it lets me share my wisdom (I wish), my rants, my life with people. In the last five years we have truly entered the Internet age, an age where people from all over the world can read what each other thinks, likes, wants,etc. I blog because maybe somewhere in the world, someone is reading this blog, and is thinking "Yeah, I think about that too" or "Hey, that's what happened to me", and we all figure out that we're not so much different from each other. I also blog, because of my nerdy/journalist side, as someone who reconizes news as just really someone else's life. I blog because I feel liberated and truly free.......

At the Big Box store

As most of you know, Yesterday was the American phenenomon called Black Friday. Every year in the land of the free, people wake up the day after Thanksgiving, and they rush out the to the big box marts and the malls to get great deals on Holiday gifts. Black Friday is a one of a kind phenenomon which is not repeated anywhere else on the planet....

Americans are know to vicious consumers, and it is more than ever evident on Black Friday. People rushing out of stores with 40 inch LCD TVs and computers, running to get the hottest bargain. In America, people love to get great deals on stuff. It makes you feel better after you got that DVD player at half off, or that camera at next to nothing prices.

What is the cost of all this consumer madness? To save money as a country, we give up hours of precious sleep, and time away from our families the day after Thanksgiving to buy more and more stuff. Is this good for America or bad for America. We may just never know......

Thanksgiving

Today, we give thanks, traditionally for a good harvest season. But now we live in the 21st century, and almost all of us do not work the land nowadays. Thanksgiving, however is still very dear and important to us, because today is the day where friends and family unite to have one nice dinner, usually with a big turkey and all the wonderful sides that have become a common sight on dinner tables.

Today is not only a day to relax and have a good meal, today is the day where we go and have a good time with our friends, family and other people sitting at the grand 'ole kitchen table.

Thanksgiving by itself is a very special day, but tomorrow is the craziest shopping day of the year. One day called Black Friday, people get up at one o' clock do chase the latest bargains at all the big box stores we have gotten so accustomed to over the years. Bargain-hunting in America is almost like a sport, it is one of Americans favorite pasttimes: In search of the next great bargain.

It is the time to give thanks for what we have, it is time to cherish the moments we have with the people so dear to us. There are only two things certain in life; Death and Taxes. Life is too short not to enjoy it. I hope when you are carving a big turkey, or having fun with friends and family, you truly give thanks to what you have in your life.

Futurephone.com

I was reading on NYtimes.com about "Free services to Inspire your cell phone" when I stumbled across Futurephone.com. Turns out if you call 712-858-8883, you can get free international calls to 50 countries, via Iowa (For all the countries you can call using Future Phone click here I haven't tested it yet, but the New York Times says it does indeed work.

You dial the access number in Iowa, and you then proceed to dial your destination number (Note: For mobile users, do not hit SEND after dialing the destination number;the call will go through by itself.) Note that standard long-distance charges do apply.

I wonder how does a company based in Iowa afford to give the U.S (almost) free international calling....FuturePhone is just another breakthrough in this modern world.

Four days

Ah....Thanksgiving holiday has come to the slice of surburbia where I live in. Four days to live life to its fullest, four days to take a break from the hectic days we live as people in this modern world. Four days, 96 hours, one break.

For me it's time to go do things that I have postponed. Do the laundry, write up some papers, read some books, watch some (good) movies, buy some new music, go buy stuff (Black Friday's only two days away). Every single holiday we get, I try to achieve things that I simply don't have time to achieve in a normal weekday.

Four days, 96 hours, one break. What are you doing with yours?

What life really is about

Everyday we wake up. We look at our alarm clocks in disbelief and try to go back to sleep. Then comes the period when we're half asleep and then we realize that we have to wake up. A quickie breakfast, then off to school or work. Eight hours pass, we go home, we eat supper, kids do homework, adults try to catch "Lost" or "Grey's Anatomy. And then we got to sleep and the entire cycle begins again.

If you live everyday simply to get to the next, then you don't live life. Open the windows, smell the clean air, look at the sky. Go out for a jog or bike, just do something outdoors for once. We only get one life, and we should use to the fullest. Everyday for me, I live each day, I don't waste it.

Sometimes we are in a bad state of mind. Sometimes we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we think we're lost in the sea of life. Life is everything we do, everything we touch. Don't let precious minutes slip by. Minutes turn into hours, hours into days, days into years, and suddenly you realize how much of our lives we've spent unhappy, overworked, and just out of touch with ourselves.

What is life really about? It's about what ever makes you enjoy life.....

The spirit of Halloween

Today was supposed to be an ordinary day, as I walked out of my house. And least I thought. What happened though, was a completely different story. It happened to be costume day at the middle school I went to. It was a day full of creative, funny and sometimes just plain weird costumes.

IT was the perfect day to throw a Halloween festival. The leaves are falling and the cool wind was blowing all day in the slice of surburbia that I live in. Blues Brothers impersonation bumping into a angel, it was just an ordinary day. Except the fact that some of the students were in costumes......

Halloween is a holiday that children and teenagers love. For one night you get to be someone totally different. For one night you get all the sugar you need for an entire lifetime. Halloween is one of our most vivid memories of childhood....

Little kids dress up as doctors, teenagers try out a darth vader suit. Halloween lets people be something crazy, to be unique, to try something out. It's something that I'll remember for the rest of my life, and I hope that you do to.......

Fencing

I was the summer of 2004 and I was ready to become a sixth grader, when I was in China for the summer and with nothing to do. Then the olympics came. And for once, it was interesting. I was just actually getting old enough to understand the entire Olympic spirit. And then I saw Fencing. It was nothing like what I had witnessed in my ordinary, boring and plain life. I watched and watched it, and from that summer on, I wanted to fence.

Alas that opportunity was never granted to me for the next two years. I ended up falling in love with cross country. And I was good at it too. It also was like nothing I never experienced. The wind blowing, the leaves falling, the relative tranquility and peace.

But then I switched schools, and suddenly my new school had fencing. I was told they had a program when I was in sixth grade, but it was just a vague memory. Luckily one of the wonderful people I met at my new school, told me about it, and I decided why not?

Now, twice a week, I struggle with footwork, and try to fence, but I love every moment of it. From the sing-song stretches to the hours and hours of footwork all just for a couple minutes on a strip.

What people do, is what makes them unique. Fencing makes me a little more unique and just a little bit more fun........

Raindrops and etc....

Today in beautiful surburbia it was downright pouring. Not your everyday shower. Or your sprinkle of rain mixed with sunshine. No it was one of those days......

Walking down the steps, luckily with umbrella in hand, I was wondering about all the poor cold wet people around me. The concept of the umbrella was invented by a frenchman who was probably as much as a hopeless romantic as I am. An umbrella is really only ment for two people. Sure when you're in middle school (and still single, unfortunately) friends huddle around you, but nothing romantic like in those movies made far far away from where I live in.

The Umbrella is probably one of the most romantic things of all time. We use them with our dates (or sometimes our friends) to protect, to shield them away from the big bad world. Just enough space for two people to look each other right in the face (or not).....It was one of those days.........

Maybe you think the umbrella is just something we use, but for me (a.k.a an hopeless romantic) its something more.........

The future of Journalism

The future of journalism lies not in big media, nor newspapers, but blogs and websites. We are entering an age that great change will happen. Never in our worlds history, have people had such ready knowledge at our hands. With two clicks of a mouse, people can learn about the great depression or the fall of the Berlin wall. with this old media must adapt. We will still need old media's trustworthy articles. But news will become more and more peoples insight and thoughts on what is happening in the changing world around us.

News will become more personal. Blogs will help the world grow closer together. It will help people truly understand one another. Someone in Toronto can offer his perspective on something happening in the U.K, and this will let people see what life is like elsewhere. People will be able to share their opinions about everything. And journalism must adapt to that. Journalism is sharing other peoples stories, their thoughts, their ideas, with the entire world. New media will help make a world, where people understand what other people are going through.

Just my two cents about the future of Journalism......

Life moves on

Everyday we wake up, go to work, go to school, and we continue down the road of life. I tell my friends after a bad day, after a loss in cross country (which by the way is my favorite sport of all time) after hard times in general, that life moves on. I told that them, because it was just a good cliche, and was the best I could say to them.

But after a while thinking while biking, does life really move on? I realized that no, it dosen't until you move on. Life goes past you, but for you it does not really move on, until you move on. After getting dumped, or rejected, or a bad day most people just want to crawl under a rock for a while. I have finally realized that unless you move on, move away, start living life again, life stand still. If you think about what worries you, what distresses you to the point of dispair, then you will never move on.

Life around you move, but your life does not move, until you move on along with it.......

How to save a life

How to save a life? What kind of question, someone with a untrained eye might be saying. Life is an experience like no other. Some people live their lives waiting to be saved. Not literally, but inside them. Inside their heart, mind and soul, they are waiting to be saved. I go to school every day and see people who think that if they just continue limping on, it will be okay. Okay today, okay tomorrow. But what happens if you want to have a good day?

What happens if you want to save your life. In the end it is only you, you are your own savior. Life is like a marathon. Your friends and family will help you back up when you fall, but it is up to you to start running again. Running down the road of life, and never looking back. How to save a life? It's time to save your own......

Passionfruit

Ah, the delight of anything that has to do about passionfruit. At CTY (or nerd camp) on the very last day almost all the campers (except me, who slept in) go out at six in the morning and toast to their CTY experience.

For people who have never gone to CTY, CTY is a once in a lifetime experience. If you go, it will most likely to be the best time of your life. Nerds from all over the world (including me, well my nerdy side) come to college campuses all over America to go for enrichment courses. Well that is what parents want to hear. But despite spending seven hours in class each day, each day shows how life is beautiful. For more information Check out this website

Anyway, we had passionfruit and mango cake when our neighbors came over for a barbeque. In one word, Passionfruit represents CTY. "We love CTY and we love the passionfruit" best describes my daydream.

trying to not die (of stress)

Overstressed, Overworked
Doing laundry passed the normal time to sleep
Trying to wake up without a coffee
Sleeping during Social studies

I wake up, and look out the window
I see the commuters
I see the parents
I see the children

Running to get to homeroom
Flying through the hallways
I slide right as attendance is about to be called
Just another day of trying to not die

Workaholic

I never believed the stories of how overworked everyone was, when I was growing up. Coming into middle school changed my perspective for the better. Nowadays I'm just like everyone else, working or dreading about work (schoolwork) almost every moment of our just too short lives. Sleep has become a fantasy, relaxation is an afterthought. Does life still continue, even under stress, work, and the other pitfalls that we have to navigate in our lives? Only time will tell.

Flipsyde

Flipsyde as some of you know are credited with penning up the new hit "Someday" which is also used as the theme song for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Flipsyde is a blend of pop with some rap which makes it great. I was not a fan of rap at all, but after listening to "Someday", I love Flipsyde. Their video(with the U.S olympic team) is on Itunes for Free, and their debut album "We the people" is on the Billboard Heatseeker charts. I highly recomend Flipsyde to all of you, and it is the first music artist that raps(kind of ) that I like.

Flipsyde's Official Website

Buy Flipsyde's Debut Album today at amazon.com

Nickle and Dimed

Nickle and Dimed is an riveting book about America's working poor, written by Barbara Ehrenreich. The novel is about her journey from upper-class writer to part of the millions of Americans that are called the working poor. They are the people that fry our fries, clean our sheets at hotels, and take care of our children. She spends 3 months working as a undercover reporter, as a foreigner in her own country. The author sees life as someone in poverty, someone at the bottom of the food chain, trying to work his/her way up the pyramid, towards a better life. It is a very thought provoking and deep read and it is one of the best books I have ever read.
I rate it 5/5, and I encourage you to buy a copy of it.



Buy Nickle and Dimed Today

48 Hours

One weekend,one long list of things to do....

Saturday: Woke up at 6:30 am. Out of house by 7:15. At testing center for the SAT at 7:30. Test started at 8:40, did not end until 1:00 pm. The SAT is basically 4 hours of filling out bubbles, and writing a essay. Time moves slowly as you struggle over the last math problem, yet time's up, just as you are going to write the anwser down. After the SAT, I had a quick break, and then I went to the Philadelphia Home Show. That's right 3 hours of looking at refigerators and the latest in hot tub technology. How Exciting!!! We ate dinner at Ocean Harbor, located in Chinatown.

Sunday: Woke up, used PC. Read the newspaper,savoring life. Went to Beijing in Media for lunch/brunch. After lunch, went to the mall. Bought khakis, a belt, and a foxtrot calendar. Came back home.Chillaxed. Had dinner. Watched "The Simpsons". Corrected LA essay. Went to sleep. Only 5 more days until the next 48 hours. (72 hours if you include friday).......

SAT Prep

For the last three weeks, I have been preparing for the dreaded SAT. To get into the camp that I wish to go to this summer, they ask you for an SAT score of 1040-Seventh Grade or 1140-Eighth grade. After hours of vocab cards, practice tests and reading the SAT prep book, it seems like I will get a score somewhere near 1800, or 1200 (Reading and Math), which means almost 200 points higher than the national average for high schoolers taking the SAT. I wonder why a test that takes around 4 hours, will change millions of lives each year. The lucky ones get good scores and go to a University of their choosing, and the unlucky end up going to State. U. 4 hours can change your lives forever..............

Journalism

Writing has always been a part of who I am, and what my life is about. Writing is somewhere where you can really express who you are. When you pick up a pen, you have the power to do what you want.

I used to write for blogs, newspapers, magazines. I've been begged to even do radio shows and to try internet TV. I retired from journalism a while ago. Sure I write once a week for one of my friend's magazines but that about it. Writing should be done on your own terms, based on your rules. Trying to fit creativity into a box does not work for me. Nowadays news is what the anchors read off, it's what the workaholic staff in the news room come up with, what they think is important. Writing is something that each of us does differently in different styles and one size fit all dosen't work for the majority of us.

How do you express yourself?