After the first couple weeks of school

A couple of weeks into the semester, here's what's going on. We officially have a new president. I will be following his actions closely, with optimism. Classes are really great, I have a monkey class, a class taught by the current state treasurer of California, a class about what happens when we do things, and a class where we're currently learning about what people think about the meaning of words. In other words, I have an anthropology class, a political science class, and two philosophy classes.

I went to the beach today and swung on the rings. This will be a regular occurrence this semester: taking advantage of the proximity of beaches. Why not do homework on the sand?

I'm at my dad's house right now...I haven't seen him in about 6 months, and it's the Vietnamese new year! Hooray!

Comments

Audrey Lois said…

Happy New Year! Erin tells me it is the Year of the OX!!!

January 26, 2009 at 4:08 AM

Tien said…

it sure is, though for the vietnamese its more of a water buffalo

February 8, 2009 at 11:08 PM

Lesson 1 - Four Agreements (from a musician)

There's a few books I frequently recommend, when I'm feeling inspired to share. "The Four Agreements" is probably at the top of the list, with a shout out to the Tao Te Ching. I came across a video I came across on youtube that served as a nice refresher on the concepts behind the book: I thought it might be fun to riff on some of the wisdom imparted, from a musical perspective. Here's a quote from Lesson 1 of the video: " You — that force of life — are always transforming, always evolving, always creating. What you’re creating is a story — a virtual reality that becomes your mind. You, that force of life, are also creating your physical body, a world made by billions of living beings — atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, and organs — until the whole being is one. Your body is a universe. The earth is another universe. The sun and the planets are another universe. And if you expand your awareness, you’ll see that all the universes are connected. Every one o...

Brazil 2012 Day 7-15

Week 2 summary: Enjoying Itajai and Balneario, went on a weekend trip to Ibiraquera, wrote some music and learned some more Portuguese Shoutouts: Evandro, Luis, Jota, Paula, Anny, Guilherme, Tulio, Pablo, Fernando, Maria Amalia, Duda, Leonardo, Mariana, Felipe, Heron, Colby, Mamae, Papai Monday, August 27th (Day 7) – Itajai I go for a long walk around downtown Itajai. I hang out at a café for a while. I go to a yoga class, which is great practice for my Portuguese vocabulary of body parts. I return home, and as I fix myself some dinner, Papai is blasting Hall and Oates in the computer room and taking a nap. Awesome. Later, Paula takes me to her gym, where there seems to be a resurgence of 1980’s fashion trends; the female contingent is sporting a significant abundance of such items as leg warmers and/or neon animal print tights. Definitely saw a scrunchie or two. Awesome. Tuesday, August 28th (Day 8) – Itajai It’s a rainy day. I spend the day at home with Ma...

The Donovan Story

Balneario Camboriu, SC, Brazil, Dec. 16th, 2012 Here’s the story: Donovan Frankenreiter was playing a free show today on the beach near where I am living in Southern Brazil. He hit the stage with his guitarist soon after I got there, but they couldn’t get the show started. Apparently there was no sound check, and nothing was working. There was no sound coming out of the guitars, and the microphones were feeding back like crazy. The musicians and sound crew were getting visibly frustrated with the situation and with each other. There was a beach full of people waiting for him to start, and after about 15 minutes of confusion, not to mention some stormy clouds gathering overhead, I went up to the front and offered to help. Some of my friends were backstage, so they let me past the fence. After hearing me speak in English, Donovan called me over and said, “Hey man, do you speak Portuguese?” I said yes, and he said, “Do you know how to run sound? OK. Make it sound good out there.” ...

tien beat

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