not your blog

reading responses and class conversation

My New Roots April 19, 2007

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1020blog @ 11:18 am

A wise woman said “You are like a Tree. Your friends are Branches, leaves, and roots that hold you together. Those that are leaves come and go during the season. Around for the good, but gone for the bad. Some friends are branches; they will stand by you during most of the good and some of the bad. The roots, they are the ones you want to hang on too. They are the ones who truly stand by you. Which is why there are so few?” The question becomes who are your roots? In the past few weeks my roots have become loose. Lately, I have been feeling that those who are friends aren’t really friends. At first I’m glad to see some of it, but now, I wish I would have realized it a while ago. I just feel that my support that I thought I had is not there anymore or never really existed. I don’t know maybe I am going crazy or maybe the world is just an evil place it’s a very thin line.           

Alaa Bazzi

 

Myspace is for losers!

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1020blog @ 11:16 am

About 1 year ago I only knew about 3 or 4 people who had a “My Space”. I couldn’t help but laugh at these people who took so much time and effort to make this miraculous web page. But lately everyday someone unleashes their new My Space. Every single person with a mouse and keyboard has one, its sickening. Since when was the country full of web designers? Most people don’t even know where the start menu is but yet you managed to make a mini website complete with video sound and pictures. Who knew you had so much potential! One of the most hilarious things I encountered on these my space sites is how good it can make the nastiest person look. You people sit there and take 4,000 pictures and pick 3 of them that make you look bombing! This site can make Sloth from the goonies look like Brad Pitt. The funny thing is when the people in the pictures have the same outfits on in every picture. By doing that you’re basically telling us “Hey I took these pictures specifically for my space so that I can have more “friends””. Then there’s those pictures where the girl lowers her shirt to reveal her cleavage and gives that chest pose. You girls are making B cups look like D cups! But nothing is better then all the “My Space Thugs” throwing up their PEACE signs and wearing their G-Unit hats with their fake chains. You’re not hood and you’re never going to be hood because you grew up in a place that has every freedom possible.            Then there’s these hilarious surveys that are so unbelievably retarded and straight up pointless. I don’t care if you like Lipton, I don’t care that your wearing slippers right now and I don’t care how much you love Oreos! HAHA and when it asks what’s your best physical feature and then the person leaves it blank, LMAO. Honestly why would you embarrass yourself like that? Go eat a box of Oreos with your Lipton Ice Tea. Then there’s these people who continuously lie on their surveys, like what is the point in that? Or when it asks you if you smoke/drink you got people with drinks in their hands in their pictures saying “No that stuff is wrong. Hey guys I’m cocaine what drug are you??? Or I’m KRISTIN from
Laguna Beach who are you? I don’t know about you but I would rather not call my self a coked up
Laguna Beach character. Seriously people need to grow up and act your their own age. All those hot super models that claim are your “friends” are not real people!

Alaa Bazzi

 

ey3 in the sky April 18, 2007

Filed under: poetry — 1020blog @ 1:46 pm

this house is empty,
and i am too full to be here…
it’s not because of fear that i run,
it’s because of what i know is there…
what is there will never be here,
it makes my eyes bulge an break upon broken tears…

i’ve shattered, and unfolded, chopped neatly upon a platter,
nothing remains except everything…
everything that time will tell you never happened,
nothing that should have ever happened…
lost in origami, spinning within a tsunami,
i know i’ll never find the answer…
but atleast i still know the question.

why do i

dread the morning,
if the sun ever were too come,
i could no longer get lost in those eyes…
the most beautiful stars that make me feel alive,
perfection in moments and frames,
ourselves unfolding within flames,
i’m scared because i live in my dreams…
who’s to say that this isn’t real?
that last night never happened,
and i’m just losing myself in a manifestation…
a fanatasy that may have never happened,
i miss it already, innocent and passionate,
lite brite smiles dispelling any form of mystery,
i’d forgotten where we were,
i’d forgotten where to be,
i’d forgotten who was me…

 

-smile-

Filed under: poetry — 1020blog @ 1:42 pm

as plotinus knew: let the world be quiet. let the heavens and the earth and the seas be still. let the world be waiting. let the self contraction relax ino the empty ground of its own awareness, and let it there quietly die. see how spirit pours through each and every opening in turmoil, and bestows new splendor on the setting sun and its glorous earth and all its radiant inhabitants. see the kosmos dance in emptiness; see the play of light in all creatures great and small; see finite worlds sing and rejoice in the play of the very divine, floating on a glory that renders each transparent, flooded by a joy that refuses time or terror, that undoes the madness of the loveless self and buries it in splendor.

indeed, indeed: let the self contraction relax into the empty ground of its own awareness, and let it there quietly die. see the kosmos arise in its place, dancing madly and divine, self luminous and self liberating, intoxicated by a light than never dawns nor ceases. see the worlds arise and fall, never caught in time or turmoil, transparent images shimmering in the radiant abyss. watch the mountain walk on water, drink the pacific in single gulp, blink and a billion universes rise and fall, breathe out and create a kosmos, breathe in and watch it dissolve.

alet the ecstacy overflow and outshine the loveless self, driven mad with the torments of its self embracing ways, hugging mightily samsara’s spokes of endless agony, and sing instead triumphantly with saint catherine, “my being is god, not by simple participation, but by a true transformation of my being. my me is god!” and let the joy sing with dame julian, “see! i am god! see! i am in all things! see! i do all things!” and let the joy shout with hankuin, “this very body i the body of buddha! and this very land the pure land!”

and this earth becomes a blessed being, and every i becomes a god, and every we becomes god’s sincerest worship, and every it becomes god’s most gracious temple.

and comes to rest that godless search, tormented and tormenting. the knot in the heart of the kosmos relaxes to allow it only god, and overflows the spirit ravished and enraptured by the lost and found Beloved. and fone the godless destiny of death and done the tears and terror of the brutal days and endless nights where time alone would rule.

and i-i rise to tast the dawn, and find that love alone will shine today. and the shining says: to love it all, and love it madly, and always endlessly, and ever fiercely, to love without choice, and thus enter the all, to love it mindlessly and thus be the all, embracing the only and radiant divine: now was emptiness, now as form, together and forever, the godless search undone, and love alone will shine today.

written by_ken wilber_

 

paused clockwork

Filed under: poetry — 1020blog @ 1:38 pm

the last pattern cascaded down in waterfalls. his eyes could only catch the shadows, glimpsing the dreams constantly unfolding with each particle. bug eyed antennas raced on waves. a frequency found in between duality. light dueling the dark, alternate realities.
spectrum revealed and sealed. opened to envelope all shadowic transparent. drops in the carpet, these cartoons have been playing on; episodes and countless chapters in a book of dreams. letting it be and showing itself atop shelves of space.

paused clockwork

void draining and pulling him wide. stretched technic apprehension, and super-human comprehension. drawing on akashic records flowing out of individual strings. carpeting becoming a radio channeled mind of universal pacification.

 

for granted April 12, 2007

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1020blog @ 8:06 pm

            Many of us take life for granted always thinking that there will be a tomorrow. It’s not the things that we do, it’s the little things that we don’t do. Like for those who have parents, when was the last time you actually hugged your parent(s) and told them how much they meant to you and that you love them? Or even your sister, or brother you never know what could happen.When was the last time you called your grandparents or that special aunt, or uncle just to say hi and tell them that they were on your mind? Or even a friend or cousin who you have not talk to or seen in years. Think about it. We have the idea that they will always be there and that nothing will happen to them. The calls tend to get shorter, the visits start to slack and become time consumeing, and next thing you know you have lost contact. I know how it is, I know the saying i’m going to call, or i’m going to come over, and it keeps getting put off. All I am saying is enjoy one another while you have each other. Don’t wait till your loved ones funeral till you give them flowers do it while their living because those are the ones that count, that they will remember. And enjoy your life as well no one should live life unhappy. The only way that your life becomes unhappy is if you let it. Yeah we all are not rich, or have a peachy family, but at times you have to make the best out of a bad situation. Like it’s ok to plan for your future, but live for the present as well. Because we all have a time to go and every second that has passed is another second not promised. It truely hurts when you have things on your mind that you could’ve, should’ve, or would’ve said when someone is out of your life for good so take it from me charish and show your appreciation to the ones in your life don’t let petty stuff prevent you from doing that. I lost my grandfather not to long ago and everything i’m telling you is what i knew all along I just took his life for granted and kept on saying “tomorrow I will call,”  or “he’s not going anywhere.” I took it for granted until reality slapped me in the face.                              

*RaSondra*   

 

Images of Hope in Detroit

Filed under: photos — 1020blog @ 3:04 am

Spaced out

Spaced out

Greektown

Greektown

Eastern Market

 Eastern Market

Wayne State University

Wayne State University

Riverfront

Riverfront

 

speaker: bilal malek April 9, 2007

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1020blog @ 10:42 pm

i walked in just in time to catch probably the half part of the speaker’s piece.

first thing i gathered, was he was speaking about oil industry. and how the fight for oil, has been a major issue in the middle east/africa (sudan).

there have been human rights abuses, and monetary gain, from corrupt governments.

he was speaking about multi-national organiations. ,

and how globalization can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

with globalization comes greed, to make money. and causes corruption.

aid money coming into countries economies that are in ‘need’, are almost used as a ‘look at me’ i’m helping these other countries. when in reality, there just taking care of there own countries reputation .. rather than sincerely giving to ‘help’

greed has caused a situation in sudan, where big corporations have a role in corrupting the government ..

and child labor, human rights abuses.

it’s HIGH TIME FORE CHANGE.

the genocide in sudan needs to stop.

posted by;

richard lannen

 

March 28, 2007

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1020blog @ 9:55 pm

 

Race March 27, 2007

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1020blog @ 4:57 am

.

            All of us have heard the expression that you should never judge a book by its cover. Well the same goes for people in saying that you should never judge a person by the color of their skin, the way they look or the way that they dress and all of the above, but racism and stereotyping is out there anyway. The definition of racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement; usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others. The only thing I don’t understand is why people have to feel superior to others especially when it comes to race. There is not one true race that was created or has come to be superior to others in the world today. Every single race or ethnicity has a unique characteristic but yet have faults and also share certain qualities that both you and I have. To me race is a made up word to give people in this world just another reason to find the bad in each and every person and to bring the hatred and all the evil out of each individual.

            Racism occurs each and every day no matter where you go. People are hurting and even killing people just because they aren’t you. For the most part people become annoyed and bored when everything around them is the same, but yet they kill difference, they strive to make everything evolve around them because people are something that your not. To me I feel that I am colorblind in this world. I don’t see black, white, yellow, green or blue. I see the people that are in this world for who they are, who they want to be and for the potential they have to become that person. People strive for brilliance and perfection, but yet there are those people that bring them down become of their race, because of what they are instead of who they are and what is great about them.

            Again I say that to me racism is a made of word that people use to section themselves off from the world that is surrounding them. They only want to know what they have been raised into, instead of using the power they are given to explore this wonderful land. Personally, I have a friend that is Mexican and a friend that is Indian but yet the key word in that sentence was friend. The people that are close to you because of what you have in common, not for what your exterior looks like.

Matt H.