Happy Holidays!

I've been so swamped in gift wrap and cardmaking these days and I LOVE it! Pictures to come after a few days.

A safe and happy holiday to you and yours.

some people

hide behind their shadows
and walk in blurry fire
whispering
(whispers dissolve)

are you really
all that?

Vote for me? ;)

There's a really cool contest that just closed up at Figment.com, and the top 5 most "hearted" entries will be submitted for the final judging by Lauren Oliver (the author of the YA novel Before I Fall).

My entry is here: http://figment.com/books/5560-Fabric. You have to make an account to "heart" something, but if you have the time to do that -- or if you already have an account -- I'd really appreciate it if you helped me out :) Thank you!

A winter treat

We sang this song in my choir at school last year, and I loved it so much I had to look it up on Youtube. It's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

So I somehow woke up today...

and realized there was a PAD challenge in November that I completely missed. I guess I'll have to try to go back and find the prompts to write some poems as quickly as possible...maybe I'll have a few up on here.

In other news, the lovely Beth Kephart introduced me to Figment.com, which is a phenomenal site. It's a whole new twist on your typical online writing community -- it reminds me of a ramped-up ReadWritePoem. Check it out!

Today was...

Danielle's 18th birthday! Happy birthday, Danielle! Please stop by her blog to wish her a very, very happy adulthood. :)

Elvis the king.

My sister and I wrote this story back and forth over e-mail together last month and had so much fun doing it! Priya suggested I share it here, and I'm glad she did...here it is. :)

Each person's words are in a different color -- guess who wrote which part! (Forgive the red and green...I clearly have Christmas on the brain.)

"Why, yes," said the dog, smiling. It took a bite out of its banana and threw the rest at the king's feet. "Would you like to share some with me?"

"'Fraid not," the king replied solemnly. "Bananas give me the wiggles."

"That's too bad," the dog mewed. "Bananas are the most delicious. I eat them day and night, and I never get wiggles."

"But scones give you the wiggles," reminded the king.

"Sir, I've a-just met you!" exclaimed the dog. "Scones might give other dogs the wiggles, but I'm a pretty special dog."

"Really," said the king skeptically. "Well, all the other dogs I've seen have gotten wiggles when they eat scones."

"How many dogs have you fed scones to?!" cried out the dog in shock and horror. Scones were NOT GOOD for a dog's digestive system! (He'd had to learn that lesson first-hand.)

"All of them," replied the king calmly.

"Dog-killer!" yelled the dog. His shout echoed throughout the land.

"OMG," muttered the king sarcastically. He tore off his kingly attire to reveal a glittery gold pantsuit. He took off his wig and crown and revealed slicked-back hair.

He was...

Elvis.

"You ain't nothing but a hound dog!" he sang.

"I'm not a hound dog!" the dog retorted, severely offended. "I hope you know that."

"All dogs are hound dogs in my world!" Elvis said.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been really snowy and cold out here, which is fabulous for all us students because we got a six-day weekend out of it! It is absolutely gorgeous!

To celebrate the snow and holidays, I've added a new layout -- complete with header and snow. A special thank-you to Priya for helping me out with the header!

Stay safe and have a happy happy Thanksgiving weekend! 

Burnt yellow

In mid-October, Priya and I went out for a little walk to capture the fall foliage:

priya.

and a couple of other shots from that day...

 

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween! Have fun!

Watch my TEDxRedmond speech!

My TEDxRedmond speech is up! I was really happy with the way it turned out...hopefully you'll enjoy it too! Click HERE to watch it.

TEDxRedmond Photos + Videos!

I was really proud to be a part of the TEDxRedmond event a month ago, and it was a huge success. Now, photos and videos are being released from the event!

You can find pictures from the event here, on Flickr! Photos may continue to be added later on. If you weren't at the event or couldn't watch it on the online stream (the servers crashed but were up and running later on), the videos of the speeches and performances from the event are gradually being added to the TEDxRedmond website and the TEDxTalks Youtube page. You can click here to watch the videos that have been uploaded -- more will continue to come later! Priya's speech is already up, and I'm so proud of her! She did a wonderful job, and I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did!

Be sure to check the photos and videos out!

[refill necessary]

My mother always tells me to use the forks, not the spoons, when stirring milk. We are not always running out of forks like we are with spoons, she says.

I sometimes run out of words. But I didn't tell her.

[p.s. A really great friend, Beth Kephart, recently sold her 13th novel! Stop by her blog to congratulate her, won't you?]

13

Yesterday was my 13th birthday. I was sick -- and still am -- so I was sleeping most of the day (got home from school and crashed). It was probably the worst birthday I've had, but I'm thirteen now and happy to be where I am and who I am. :)

RWP anthology released

The title is self-explanatory. The NaPoWriMo anthology from ReadWritePoem released yesterday, and it looks really good! My poem "Baggage" is included in the collection.

Hop on over to www.readwritepoem.org to read the anthology online.

TEDxRedmond!

The incredible TEDxRedmond event was held yesterday in Redmond, WA, and it was really just astounding. I was so honored and so proud to be a part of it, as a speaker and as a planning committee member.

I've never been asked for my autograph before, and it was amazing and so humbling for me to be able to sign people's programs and books. I was overwhelmed entirely by the recognition that people gave me -- in one instance, I was just walking down the hall to get a Sprite (I don't drink soda too much, but my throat was hurting a little and the sugar felt good) and someone tried to high-five me. Not realizing that he was holding out his hand for me to hit, I walked past him and he turned to look back, somewhat offended. (I was quick to apologize :) )

People would walk up to me and say really positive things and everyone was so supportive and did a wonderful job! I was impressed by every single person's speech and students in attendance told me that they were so captivated by each speech that they couldn't focus on anything else. 

It was such a success; it was entertaining, we had a fabulous dinner, lots of pictures were taken, I got to do some interviews, and, very excitingly, I got to touch an actual segment of the Berlin Wall. Kind of random, I know, but Microsoft actually houses a fairly large piece of the Berlin Wall at their conference center, where the event was held.

There were so many famous people there and so much talent housed in one room that I'm sure many people did feel insignificant (I know I did occasionally). But overall, I think people -- both the students and their parents, who sat outside of the main theater in separate rooms, watching a live stream -- came away from the event feeling like they could make a difference, feeling really inspired, and feeling positive about a future where they could make it big and where they could really do something to change the world.

That was our goal. And I think we reached it in a very successful way, without glitches or hitches of any sort. And as for me, I walked away completely starstruck. 

On the Radio!

I was on KUOW 94.9 FM in Seattle this morning -- my very first radio program! -- and it was so much fun and a great learning experience.

You can listen to the online stream here: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=21342 (Click on "download" on the right side under the picture, and you don't have to upload it to your computer or have any media player whatsoever. It should buffer pretty quickly.) It's about a 50-minute segment. Enjoy!

google chrome + kate spade =

this fabulosity. 

is it not a heavenly internet browser? 

Still alive!

I am really sorry that I haven't added more pictures from our Florida vacation! It was a lot of fun, and it looks like you enjoyed part one of my photo recap. Thank you for reading that!

Since school started things have been pretty crazy! I am in a pretty advanced class this year, which in turn means that I need to devote more of my time to schoolwork. I'm going to be putting blogging on the backburner this year so I can focuse more on school, so posts will be really slow.

I am working on part 2 but it most likely won't be up in the next few days; you can expect it sometime next week. My birthday is coming up as well (on the 24th) and I will be turning 13, so I'm excited about that!

Anyways, I just thought I would stop in and let you know where I've disappeared off to :) I hope to blog a lot more during holidays and breaks...but in the meantime, hopefully I can have all my vacation pictures posted by the end of October! 

-Maya

Orlando, Florida!: Part 1

Magic Kingdom! We got to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Summer Nightastic! Fireworks (both were incredible, the latter being the most outstanding display I've ever seen) on two separate days -- it didn't get old at all!

The Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! street party...super fun to watch!

Eco-friendly Dumbo? :)

We ate at Tony's Town Square our first night in Orlando, which is a fancy little restaurant off the side of Main Street, U.S.A., in the Magic Kingdom. But it's not any restaurant -- it's straight out of The Lady and The Tramp! Fun!

Whip out your wands, folks...

Hogsmeade is self-explanatory. Incredible, incredible stuff here.

"The Flight of the Hippogriff," the easiest coaster here. It's not an overly kiddie coaster; it's still a lot of fun if you're older.

Hogwarts. We took so many pictures, and I can't post them all, so it was really hard to pick which ones to put on here! Trust me, the place is worth a visit, although it's only a one-day thing. It's so amazing.

The detail on the castle -- just everything inside and outside -- is impeccable. It's absolutely brilliant on Universal's part. The hilarious thing was our wait in the morning to get in (only about a half hour, actually) -- the rest of Universal Studios was absolutely deserted and the only lines were for the WWoHP park. :)

Along the sides of the lines for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which is the most mindblowing ride there. There are lots of goodies, but it's dark so it's hard to take pictures. Priya managed to get this one of the Mirror of Erised, but we gave up afterwards because you just can't take anything properly.

I'm sorry I couldn't rotate this one -- it's when you're walking towards the loading dock for the ride. If you haven't figured out what it is yet (shame on you!), it's the staircase to Dumbledore's office. (And if that still puzzles you, you haven't watched the movies enough times!) But the fabulous thing about the wait is that you get to walk through the castle, literally, and they basically themed it around a Quidditch match; so there are Daily Prophet clippings with "Gryffindor vs. Slytherin!" headlines, and the moving portraits (they're actually screens, but they are freakishly oil-painting-like) are chatting about Harry's chances of winning...etc. :) It's every die-hard fan's fantasy. Absolutely fantastic stuff.

The ride is sort of like the Back to the Future ride, says my dad, but I don't know if you've ridden that one either. You're in a little buggy-type thing (if you've ever been to the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disney World, you'll know what I'm talking about), and you levitate. You go through the castle in the air; parts of it are giant contact lens shaped screens where you get to follow Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint as they take you flying around the castle and onto the Quidditch pitch and you come face-to-face with a Horntail, and parts of it are actual real objects that move -- for example, you see rising Inferi and ghosts and "acromantulas" that spurt blood on you (it's just water), and there's a big dragon that looms towards you and breathes hot orange fire on you. It's all so wonderfully lifelike that we were all screaming and I closed my eyes in parts out of fear. It's really not scary, but just not knowing what to expect kind of makes it frightening. It's spectacular, though; it features Emma Watson as well. There's a part near the end where you dive straight down, plummeting towards the lake, and I still remember my mom screaming as we all "flew" downwards. AWESOME. We got to go on this three times, and I think it would have been unmagical if we went on it any more times, but the one word to describe this ride is AWESOME (in capital letters).

The entrance to Dragon Challenge, which is also fabulous! The big blue thing you see there is the coaster; the seats are attached via the top, so it's like you're sitting in a hanging set of seats rather than in a car-type setting, and that's actually good because there are corkscrews and dangerous-seeming turns, but it's so thrilling and an absolute BLAST to ride. These two coasters (there's a blue Horntail and a red Fireball) are vying for my favorite ride(s) of all time. Note, though: the Fireball is way more fun and way more scary.  :) Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful all around!

Can you guess?

No?

Still no? Come on, the "chocolate" sign has to be a dead giveaway. Plus, there's all sorts of candy...

Honeydukes!

Honeydukes is so colorful and so tantalizing, yet so pricy that you feel bad to buy anything. Brilliant and fabulous to look around, though.

Part 2 coming up soon!

Collaborative poem

My heart beats like smoke:
thin-armed prescience inside my chest
more of nonbeing, more
than threaded sorrow and fluid chambers
manifestation of emptiness, sing saccharine love songs
to blank-faced old men
wearing paper-airplane folded souls underneath,
hidden under fading footsteps.

I love this poem so much. It turned out incredibly well, so thank you to Holly, Q, Maxie Steer, Julia, Erin, and geekspawngirl for participating!

I'm organizing a post of Orlando pictures, so definitely stay tuned for that! We had so many fabulous experiences while on vacation, and I can't wait to share them with you through our photos!

Happy Birthday...

...to one of the most fantabulous people I know.

I would be lying to myself and her if I said that she's the perfect sister, because half of the time she's funny, helpful, and entertaining, and half the time she's annoyed with me (but only because I bother her). But the thing I like about her is that she's unapologetically herself and still very grounded and very human, and she's extremely young at heart.

On our vacation to Disney World, from which we just returned, she was so excited about meeting Mickey and Minnie and stood at the end of Main Street, U.S.A., watching the castle for about fifteen minutes as it changed colors against the night skyline at the end of our last day at Magic Kingdom. She scoured every newsstand and every shop for just the right pair of Minnie Mouse ears and was made thoroughly happy when I pretended to be Gustav, a fictional personal assistant to Mickey Mouse (she even gave me requests to give to Mickey, to which I pretended to relay a response).

This is what makes her so Priya -- that she can be this young and still call herself fifteen, that she can be a 4.0-GPA student and still find time to watch episodes of Arthur, and that she can be traveling everywhere on all sorts of school trips and still be the best sister I could ask for.

Happy fifteenth birthday.

Lots of love from
Maya

Back!

I had a fabulous trip! I have so many stories to share and lots of pictures! The butterbeer was delicious and we had so many fancy meals...not to mention the fact that we got to meet Cinderella's family and all sorts of other Disney characters as well. :)

Thanks for participating in the collaborative poem -- if you haven't already done so, be sure to join in on the fun by Friday, August 20, at 12 pm Pacific Time (3 pm Eastern), and I hope you enjoyed the guest posts!

Lots more to come soon!

Guest Blog: Holly from 'Eating a Tangerine'

While I'm off on another humid, sweltering, waterslide-chasing adventure of my own, Holly agreed to stop by and share her travel experience -- to none other than Berlin, Germany!

Berlin Death March

June had come, and we were exchange students. Our summers and our futures were bright. We were the cream of the our generation's crop, emissaries of cross-cultural goodwill and exemplars of the well-rounded high school existence, full of youthful enthusiasm and idealism (maybe). We were headed for the real-deal experience of German culture, full drinking-age privileges, linguistic immersion, and some epic profile pictures to make our friends back home jealous.

The woman next to me on my San Francisco - Washington, D.C. flight asked was I getting off in Washington? I informed her I was flying on to Germany to be an exchange student. Was I going to live in a German family's home? she inquired. Oh yes. She must have felt honored to be sitting next to me, the bright hope of America's youth, a perfect embodiment of amicable globalism.

We had converged in Washington, D.C. from our respective hometowns, crossed the Atlantic, been shepherded through the Frankfurt airport, and then flown east to Berlin, where we would receive our orientation into German culture. The only thing left standing in the way of our destinies were the dozen or so Berlin miles between the airport and our hostel.

I should have expected we might not have the smoothest transition onto the streets. The relative uneventfulness of the past fifteen hours were due mainly to our confinement to the airplane. I had already run into a little trouble with a Dulles security officer for leaving my bags unattended. (actually, I had left them in the company of my fellow bright-hopes-of-America's-youth, who had abandoned them when their time to board came. My time, too, actually, only I was running around the airport trying to sort out some lost papers.) Fortunately, he seemed to sense my status as an emblem of hope for international cooperation, and so did not hinder me any further.

Oh, and the lost papers, that's right. In accordance with my mama's advice, I had placed all of my significant, likely-to-be-required papers in a plastic document holder that I was carrying on my person. Which I managed to leave behind at a pay phone kiosk in the airport terminal. Inventory: plane tickets, traveler's checks, contact information for my host family and exchange organization that I would need upon landing, or if I should happen to run into any difficulties like, oh, I don't know, lost documents. Fortunately, I was carrying my passport and cash separately, even more closely to my person.

Additionally, one of our number's suitcases appeared to have gone on a vacation of its own to Rome, and another, who held Peruvian citizenship, had had some difficulty with the passport control in Frankfurt.

Not to mention we'd already been traveling for more than twenty-four hours and our brains were distinctly worse for the wear.

So we land. Into the sweltering, damp June heat, jetlagged and travel-grimy, with as cringe-inducing an excess of luggage as you'd expect of American teenagers, plus some, minus that one guy's stuff—we land. We are met by Hannah! and! Jana! who are to be our intrepid volunteer shepherds. Other than Ned's AWOL luggage, we have it together enough to catch a bus, on which we catch our first ground-level glimpses of the metropolis.

Next comes a transfer trek to a subway station. We learn there are, for our purposes, no escalators in Germany. Approximately 700 lbs of luggage make their way into the Berlin underground under the alleged guidance of approximately 1500 lbs of American teenager. Trains are ridden, and then it is time for the stairs to be ascended. O, stairs! 2200 lbs of American hopes and consumerisms lumber back up into the beating sun. We roll across the plaza and begin to follow a side street. That is, the lucky ones of our number roll. A certain couple of kids were on top of their aesthetical game enough to be using those big ole vintage hard-shell suitcases which could ostensibly be carried by their single mannerly handle, but in order to keep up with the Berlin death march must be clutched in both arms across one's front with all the desperation that twenty-six hours of travel and ninety-some degrees Fahrenheit engender.

After a half mile, our fearless leaders order a halt. They confer over a map in rapid German, and announce that we have been marching in wrong direction; we must turn around and go back the way we came. Hannah and Jana have not lead us aright, and the spilling of this sweat, the lugging of this luggage, have been for naught.

Back into the subway. Despair begins to tickle at our minds. If Hannah and Jana fail to find our hostel, who could stand in their stead and succeed? How could we have been so trusting of them, pretty as they were and with their rhyming names? God of exchange students, lead us not up more unnecessary stairs. There are more stairs, both up and down, and then there is another half a mile at least, more trekking, with our suitcases in our poor incredulous arms or clattering along behind us on their cheap wheels which send them toppling every time we face a curb. There are bike lanes to cross too slowly and thoughtlessly with our American ignorance and jetlag-numbed minds, and opportunity to be on the receiving end of warning yells from Germans who must swerve to avoid us.

And finally, there is a hostel. Four stories up, but there is an elevator for our baggage. We pile it in. We send it up. We send ourselves up, through the stairwell's cigarette smoke. And we are arrived.
 
Holly

Collaborative poem!

I haven't done a collaborative poem in a while, and since I'm on vacation it's a perfect time to give you long enough to chime in with your line!

Here's how it goes:

I'll kickstart the poem with one line (below). Go to the comments section of this post and submit ONE line to add to the poem. (If you submit more than one, I'll take the first one I see so that it's fair for everyone.) If people have left lines before you, make sure you submit a line that allows the poem to flow well. Feel free to use punctuation, and keep it relevant. At the end, I'll wrap up the piece with an ending line and post the poem in its entirety.

This time around, I'll take everyone's lines that are submitted before August 20 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

Here's the opening line.

My heart beats like smoke:

Write away!

Guest Blog: Danielle from 'Sesquipedalian'

Hello everyone!

Since Maya is presently out gallivanting on fabulous adventures, I thought it seemed appropriate to write about travel as well. Recently, I was able to spend three weeks in France (all over) and England (mainly London area). In both places, I was able to partake in one of my favorite tourist activities-- scouting the local English bookstores. There are a million different things I could write about but instead I'm going to focus on one particular site-- a bookstore. Shocking, I know.

The first time I visited France in 2006, I stumbled across Shakespeare and Company Bookstore across from Notre Dame in Paris, completely by accident. Upon my second trip this summer, it was the first place I wanted to revisit, as well as the one I remembered the most. My first thoughts upon seeing the exterior are best described as mouth gaping awesomeness. It is the kind of store that makes you believe you have accidentally stumbled into Heaven. Pictures are definitely the best way of describing this:

the first cashier desk, with lovely books

a view of the main store area, with the wishing well in the center

the second cashier desk, and of course.. books

the store was filled with rich colors

an example of the vintage artifacts in the shop

the shop's motto

one of the beds and the lovely piano

lovely boxes of lavender, just strewn about

the classic old fashioned typewriter in the writing nook

a very creaky and narrow staircase-- good fun!

the shop made me just a little bit happy

Now that you've seen just how special Shakespeare and Co. is, you can read the official history here if you so desire. This, however, is my condensed and specialized version of the story.

The shop was founded by an American named George Whitman in 1951, with the motto of "BE NOT INHOSPITABLE TO STRANGERS LEST THEY BE ANGELS IN DISGUISE." The most exciting part of this is that he would let friends and strangers alike stay the night in the beds he conveniently placed throughout the shop (you can see one of them in the pictures above). The only conditions were that they made their beds in the morning, helped around the shop, and read a book a day. On Saturdays, he would make pancakes. To this day, you can still make an appointment to stay the night in the shop. The book selection is also superb, branching nearly every subject of interest you could possibly have-- not an easy task for a shop this small. As if that were not charm enough, the random assortment of eclectic and whimsical items such as a wishing well where coins of all nationalities are thrown, street signs, attached moving ladders similar to Beauty and the Beast style, an abundance of well loved armchairs, reading rooms, lavender, picturesque views of the Seine river, a playable piano, and an authentic old fashioned typewriter in perfect working condition are all characteristic of the shop and its history. In the writing nook, visitors write and leave little notes expressing their joy in stumbling across the shop, their dreams and aspirations, and sometimes even a secret or two. It was incredibly inspiring to be sitting where you know thousands have come before you, breathing in the magic of a classically wonderful bookshop.

In closing, I can express only two things more. First, is that you absolutely must visit this shop if ever you find yourself in Paris. It's very easy to find-- directly across the river from Notre Dame Cathedral. Secondly, always keep an eye out for the hidden bookshops you might see along your adventures. They're usually the most magical treasures.

Happy reading!
 
Danielle

Hermione!

Many years ago, I wrote a story with the characters and setting of the Harry Potter books. While rereading this 206-page, still-unfinished story recently, I found this. :)

“Oh, it’s you,” Hermione replied. “I’ve been up since three rereading the question sheet and trying to find the answer. I’ve also gone to the library almost eight times and I still can’t find the answer to question twelve.”


“Let me look.” Harry peered at question twelve.

Question #12: How did the Sorting Hat come to be?

“Hermione! I expected you to know this! The Sorting Hat came from Godric Gryffindor! He took his hat and put brains in it!”

Update

We're going on vacation very soon! While I'm gone, as I said before, you will see a couple of scheduled posts, so please do swing back around and check that out. I will probably post very little if at all from now until I get back...

So until then, have a great summer!

Summer days

(first photo by my sister; second photo taken by me. editing done by me. click for large.)

You know you're from Washington

From the "You know you are from Washington when..." Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210864929):

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.
He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction, and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of the earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over there I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things."
God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God. "That's Washington State, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, plains, and coulees. The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats, and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance."
God smiled and said, "There is another Washington...wait until you see the idiots I put there."

 :)

New look!

I've officially remodeled my blog! There has been so much work and time put into this remodel, and it has taken me days to finally come up with a product that I love and am proud of!

This blog will also feature slightly different content next month! I am so excited because I will be in Orlando the second week of August, and I will have many many fun stories to tell once I get back. To keep you busy reading while I'm gone, I hope to have a couple of scheduled posts, so keep an eye out for that!

I hope you like the new look; thank you for being so patient and for being a reader!

Your type

What kind of person are you? Go to http://www.41q.com/ and take their personality test if you haven't already, then let me know. I find such things fascinating.

I'm a "dreamy idealist."

Quiet, reflective and idealistic. Interested in serving humanity. Well-developed value system, which they strive to live in accordance with. Extremely loyal. Adaptable and laid-back unless a strongly-held value is threatened. Usually talented writers. Mentally quick and able to see possibilities. Interested in understanding and helping people.

Careers that could fit you include:

Writers, artists, counselors, social workers, English teachers, fine arts teachers, child care workers, clergy, missionaries, psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, political activists, editors, education consultants, journalists, religious educators, social scientists.

Who are you?

Today's kind of summer

Capris and shorts,
lemonade in the refrigerator.

Yellow heat spins us
towards cups of ice water
as we drown in waves of sun.

Splash

cerulean water
wipes the bodies
of laughing people
(ages 5 and 6, beginners'
swim class at the pool)
and flutters past
(like a crayon drawing
now alive)

Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July!

(photo credit)

Cirque du Soleil's "KOOZA"

If there were one word to describe this show, it would be something like "incredible" or "amazing," but that wouldn't just be enough. You'd have to add phrases like "unlike any other" or "refreshingly exciting." Because that's what the show was: all of these words coming together and creating an out-of-this-world blend of acrobatics and fearlessness.

You come away from the show in awe of these performers' talent and sheer boldness. Some acts keep you on the edge of your seat, hoping the performers stay alive and don't fall and break their necks; other sections of the show are beautiful and so fluidly enchanting; and others are pure comedy and slapstick humor that you can't help but laugh at.

There is one common thread throughout the whole show, though: a celebration of world cultures and an acceptance of every performer up there onstage. KOOZA was without a doubt a culmination of many nations, with music and costumes reflecting different languages and ways of life. And through all of the diversity, there was a deep love for acrobatics and performance that you could sense in the air and in the performers' bodies.

It was worth every cent of the ticket price, and I feel so lucky to have been able to go. It's one of those shows where, as soon as it's over, you want it to start all over again.

KOOZA

On Tuesday, we're off to the circus for the Cirque du Soleil production KOOZA! This will be the second Cirque production I've seen, the first being Corteo, which was amazing. 

The thing I love about Cirque du Soleil is how, through everything, without words, the dancers and acrobats are able to communicate and weave a whole story and tell it with such grace and apparent ease. It possesses such an irreplaceable, unsurpassed artistic quality that makes every moment of the performance worthwhile. I'm so excited to be going to KOOZA because it has the same kind of quirky, artistic look and feel to it as Corteo (at least, from the video clips and photos of KOOZA on the Cirque website).

I don't know if photography is allowed inside; I would expect not, but if they're permitted, I'll try to see if photos are possible. Nevertheless, the troupe provides some pics and videos on the site (see the link at the top of the post), if you're interested.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

If the freakishly huge popularity of Harry Potter wasn't enough to convince you that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the theme park that opened at Universal Studios yesterday to recreate the Harry Potter experience and world for fans, was -- and is -- going to be insanely crowded, here is proof (from a Twitterer who tweeted this photo of the line to get inside). I guess we all know what the moral of this picture is: You get there early, you get in early. But judging from this, we'll have to get there extra-early. (click photo for large)

TEDxRedmond

TEDxRedmond is an independently organized speaking conference that follows the basic structure of a normal TED conference -- except for the fact that all its speakers are all children in grades 6 - 10. If  you're familiar with the TED series, TEDxRedmond is a branch of it. If you're not as familiar with TED, you can visit their official site at http://www.ted.com/.

Here are the official details for TEDxRedmond:
September 18, 2010
Microsoft Campus,
Redmond, WA 98052

You can sign up to attend TEDxRedmond at http://www.tedxredmond.com/ (click the "Attend" button). You can also sign up to speak there by clicking on the "Attend" button and filling out the form at that link, but all speakers will be students in grades 6 - 10.

If you're in the Seattle-Redmond area, be sure to come! It will be a lot of fun, and there's going to be entertainment (and food, I believe) as well.

Step

Right now,
the sun stamps the shadow
of my window blinds
onto the wall.
I listen to voices
in the next room,
cadence and nuance
flowing.

Poetry Friday roundup here.

Harry Potter!

If the trailer is any indication, the first installment of HP7 is going to be out-of-this-world. I have to agree with what Priya said, though: Daniel Radcliffe isn't looking like the regular, normal Harry anymore -- he looks a little funny. Either way -- funny-looking Harry or not funny-looking Harry -- this movie is going to be brilliant.

edit [8:49 p.m.]: The video has now been trimmed to fit my post space, since it was previously cutting across the sidebar. Thanks Priya for spotting the mistake I'd made in originally trying to trim it!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blogger in draft has an amazing custom template design tool, and it is absolutely HEAVEN. I think I'm dying from excitement.

I may just have to change my template every week now.

Do you believe in dreams?

I'm lucky to live in a town where, if you pay attention and look around just a bit, you'll see the most wonderful sights. I usually make a mental note of such things. And a week and a half or so ago, I saw this bumper sticker on a passing car:

"Help make 'starving artist' an oxymoron."