elliotk's Xanga

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:13:15 GMT

From fanball.com

"You know how the big brother always beats up on the little brother until the little brother runs crying to Mommy? You'll get to see that on national TV when Peyton goes over to Eli's house and teaches him a few things."

hahaha

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:32:18 GMT

Money and student visa troubles aside, I'm still enjoying L.A.

Stuff keeps falling into my hair and getting caught there because I use wax and put my hair up.

I wanted to find a thoughtful quote related to President's Day, and here it is:

    "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and         philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural
    history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their
    children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and
    porcelain."
                                        -John Adams

So, there's all this fuss about Hamas: if you want to stop, dillute, or reverse a spiritual or ideological movement, give the people more wealth/money and comfort than they can handle.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 03:38:17 GMT

Autumn Day

Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Stephen Mitchell

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine. 

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the
evening,
and wander the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

Autumn

P.K. Page

Whoever has no house now will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone
Will sit, read, write long letters through the evening
And wander on the boulevards, up and down...

Autumn Day Rainer Maria Rilke

Its stain is everywhere.
The sharpening air
of late afternoon
is now the colour of tea.
Once-glycerined green leaves
burned by a summer sun
are brittle and ochre.
Night enters day like a thief.
And children fear that the beautiful daylight has gone.
Whoever has no house now will never have one.

It is the best and the worst time.
Around a fire, everyone laughing,
brocaded curtains drawn,
nowhere-anywhere-is more safe than here.
The whole world is a cup
one could hold in one's hand like a stone
warmed by that same summer sun.
But the dead or the near dead
are now all knucklebone.
Whoever is alone will stay alone.

Nothing to do. Nothing to really do.
Toast and tea are nothing.
Kettle boils dry.
Shut the night out or let it in,
it is a cat on the wrong side of the door
whichever side it is on. A black thing
with its implacable face.
To avoid it you
will tell yourself you are something,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening.

Even though there is bounty, a full harvest
that sharp sweetness in the tea-stained air
is reserved for those who have made a straw
fine as a hair to suck it through-
fine as a golden hair.
Wearing a smile or a frown
God's face is always there.
It is up to you
if you take your wintry restlessness into the town
and wander on the boulevards, up and down.

One of my favorite seasons, but includes a refrain we call back-to-school.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 06:13:47 GMT

xanga update, begin!

Had most stressful year so far in my entire school career. So I took Spring quarter off, now in VC, will take a trip through the Rockies late in june, then moving to TO with family before July, then flying from TO to LA before Sept 14th (dang, my flight home got way longer; I took those 2hr45min flights for granted). And, got some scholarship money (no, I didn't become a US citizen but they realized i am poor)

I miss people in LA, especially those I haven't seen in a long time like UPC'ers and James Hong. I will msg you freaks shortly.

xanga update, finish!

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Sun, 03 Oct 2004 07:18:40 GMT

I am now in L.A. for round 2 of being a Foreign Student in America.

-at LAX they held me for 2.5 hours in this guarded, isolated area because I didn't know my I-94 had to be turned in when I left the States back in June. They wouldn't even let me make a phone call to call my roommate who was waiting to pick me up (now I owe him a good dinner), and they didn't let me retrieve my baggage. But they were generous enough to have someone retrieve them for me later.

-after I left LAX I realized the INS officer forgot to give me a new I-94, so I had to go downtown this past Wednesday and line up to get into the federal building and finally got to Deferred Inspections Office, where they gave me a new I-94. I told a new friend about these troubles and he said I was lucky my name wasn't his name, "Mohammed."

-My first day in LA I drank 2 litres of water in about 3.5 hours. Everytime I come here I get so dehydrated for a day or two.

-All my classes are messed up. I'm only enrolled in two currently. This week I will find myself begging two or three profs or something like that.

-I went to Fresh 2004, which was a youth rally featuring David Crowder and the new Sonicflood. David Crowder rocked the house. The new Sonicflood sounded crappy, and they even gave a plug for their latest CD right in the middle of a worship song (not just in the middle of a worship set after a song): "You can find 'em (the CDs) right outside where they sell the merchandise blah blah blah." Someone should've gone and upturned their table.

-my new place is great. It's spacious and clean condo, the furniture is new, and there's a pool and ping-pong table. But there's no pool table. Can't have everything in life.

-I'd like to have a job and maybe I could lease a car. It's difficult to get to UCLA from my place. Oh yeah, they don't have the Acura EL in USA!

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 07:50:20 GMT

"Some believe the whole 2004-05 season could be cancelled. That means the Stanley Cup not being awarded for the first time since 1919 - when an influenza epidemic stopped the Montreal- Seattle final."

Yesterday, the NHL officially became locked out. Two sides with lots of money fighting about how to divide the revenue for the upcoming (now stillbirthed) season. Here we go again with another lockout--the last one was roughly ten years ago but thankfully was resolved by January 1995 so we actually got to see a playoffs. But this time around--as we've been told by players, owners, experts, the commissioner--the two sides are much further apart than they were back in the 1994-1995 season.

If this whole NHL season is cancelled I think most Canadian fans will be back after the lockout, but not so in the U.S. When baseball got totally locked out the fans were slow to return at full strength--10 years approximately. And baseball is the American past time! Imagine how hockey will fare, being an already ignored sport in the U.S.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 05:36:26 GMT

"Sitting at the table doesn¡¯t make you a diner. You must be eating some of what¡¯s on that plate. Being here in America doesn¡¯t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn¡¯t make you an American." -Malcolm X "The Ballot or the Bullet," speech, April 3 1964, Cleveland, Ohio (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 3, 1965).

Friday, September 10, 2004

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 05:21:40 GMT

You go to dinner with a person. This person is nice to you. This person is mean to the waitress. This person is not a nice person.

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 07:44:29 GMT

For the first time in my life I met an asian person with a southern drawl. My friend's cousin, Mike, travelled all the way from Houston, TX for a wedding in Vancouver.

We had lots of fun putting him on the spot. He explained that he had a slight drawl and a little bit of an accent but the whole time he was explaining this he totally had a U.S. southern accent and we couldn't help but laugh. I felt bad for him, that he was like a freak show, but it was too funny and he was too exotic. And apparently to Mike we Canadians all talk weird. It's fascinating that he himself can't hear his southern accent as more than a slight drawl. This has me curious as to how my English sounds in the U.S. Am I a totally strange sounding bloke from Canada? Even if I tape recorded myself speaking I probably wouldn't be able to hear my own Canadian accent. For some reason I feel so imprisoned by not being able to truly hear my Canadian-ness.

It seems that Canadians can be more opinionated and excited abouted the upcoming U.S. elections than American folks. Mike and his dad didn't seem so interested in the whole thing--it was the Canadians at the table that were arguing about Kerry vs. Bush. If I could vote it would be for Bush. Althought I don't agree with the initial move into Iraq, at least give him a chance to fix the mess. Let the man finish (or try to finish) what he started and then make a judgment. The fact that he started the mess in the first place doesn't matter now that the mess is there for everyone to behold. Let him truly stand or truly fall in the next four years that are given him.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 06:45:54 GMT

What do dirty babies smell like?

I'm not talking about soiled diapers dirty but the grimy, sticky kind of dirtiness. The other day I discovered how to reproduce the smell: get a small amount of rainbow sherbet ice-cream, rub it into your face, and let it dry.

Then go find your mom and have her smell you!