When I was young, me and my brothers would pretend to be able to speak English by making sounds that resembled it. Both of my parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico, so we only spoke Spanish in our house until we started attending school.
A couple of years later, English replaced our native Spanish, and today we only use it when we talk to our parents.
My parents run a catering company, and I worked for them to make money while I studied.
At Palomar College, I completed my general education and I earned an Associate’s in Humanities Degree. I excelled in German, Chinese and Japanese courses.
I started learning Japanese while I was in High School. My school didn’t offer Japanese classes, so I used the money that I had saved up to buy Japanese textbooks. At that time, the internet was still new to me, so I had no idea how to carry out my studies, so I began by learning the alphabet system, and a couple of words.
This may seem strange to you, but I think that both written and spoken Japanese are beautiful on their own.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Megacity
People will often say that Megacity comes to life only after the sun has set. Such statement isn’t too far from the truth. As I walked through the dirty streets of the city, it seemed as if the creeps and junkies had crawled out of their holes to hit their local haunts.
I could hear the faint sound of rock music coming from some club far ahead of me.
I made most of my money running odd jobs here and there. Sometimes, I would do some programming, or test out circuit boards, and other times I would bounce for the local discos. Once, I cooked Chinese food for some celebrity, even though I hadn‘t tried it before. I got through by talking my way out of tough situations.
Megacity seemed to go nowhere. It was a train that had lost it’s course a long time ago. And it took us all along for the ride. Many of the towers had been left vacant for years.
I could hear the faint sound of rock music coming from some club far ahead of me.
I made most of my money running odd jobs here and there. Sometimes, I would do some programming, or test out circuit boards, and other times I would bounce for the local discos. Once, I cooked Chinese food for some celebrity, even though I hadn‘t tried it before. I got through by talking my way out of tough situations.
Megacity seemed to go nowhere. It was a train that had lost it’s course a long time ago. And it took us all along for the ride. Many of the towers had been left vacant for years.
Space Colonists
“I did not become a colonist because I set my eyes on raising a fortune. My parents once told me that we should chase after our dreams; and that is what I have done throughout my life. I knew that a part of me would always remain on Earth, but now that we are in a different planet, I am resigned to never going back again. And neither do I look back. All I am telling you is that you should resign yourself to never going back home again.”
The captain held back tears, and his voice had begun to crack. It had been a moving moment for all of us within the spaceship. After a brief moment of silence, the Commanding Officer also stepped up to the podium; his face was as stern as ever - he did not feel the same way as the captain.
“You say that we should be brave and walk into the depths of a dark and dangerous cavern; this thing you call a planet. But it sounds to me like you are chasing a selfish dream instead. If we die, there will be nobody to remember us. We will become little more than debris floating through space. I request - no, I demand that we turn back now while we still can!”
“We will not go back, Commander! Can’t you see how far we have come? How can you throw away that which we have worked for so long, just because of a moment of insecurity!”
“You are insane! We barely have enough supplies to maintain the crew for more than a month! How will we live here?”
“We will find away. I have already sent out an expedition team to analyze the atmospheric conditions, as well as to collect samples of indigenous fauna.”
“You give me no choice but to contact headquarters, Captain. If I allow you to carry out your ambition you will doom us all.”
The captain held back tears, and his voice had begun to crack. It had been a moving moment for all of us within the spaceship. After a brief moment of silence, the Commanding Officer also stepped up to the podium; his face was as stern as ever - he did not feel the same way as the captain.
“You say that we should be brave and walk into the depths of a dark and dangerous cavern; this thing you call a planet. But it sounds to me like you are chasing a selfish dream instead. If we die, there will be nobody to remember us. We will become little more than debris floating through space. I request - no, I demand that we turn back now while we still can!”
“We will not go back, Commander! Can’t you see how far we have come? How can you throw away that which we have worked for so long, just because of a moment of insecurity!”
“You are insane! We barely have enough supplies to maintain the crew for more than a month! How will we live here?”
“We will find away. I have already sent out an expedition team to analyze the atmospheric conditions, as well as to collect samples of indigenous fauna.”
“You give me no choice but to contact headquarters, Captain. If I allow you to carry out your ambition you will doom us all.”
Guitars
“Listen, I just can’t play anymore. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I just can’t do it. I guess it’s got something to do with my nerves, man. I really want to play, but whenever I try to play, Marie just keeps coming up in my mind…and my fingers stop moving.”
Arl set down his guitar and gazed up to the dark sky. The two of us sat together by the bonfire that night, looking up at all of the stars above. I picked up the guitar and strummed up a couple of songs. After an hour had passed, I put it down.
“Let go of her, man. Sometimes we search for somebody to love us, but it doesn’t work out that way. If you let Marie take control over you like this, it’ll destroy you. Can’t you look forward, and hope that something better comes your way?”
Arl gave me a bitter look, which soon faded into a shade of sorrow.
“No, you don’t know what it’s like. I really loved her, and Michael was my friend too.”
It was true. Arl and Michael had known each other for quite a while, and both were just as good on the guitar. But Michael and Marie shared a special connection that Arl had never been able to understand. Arl had been with so many girls that love had begun to seem more like a system to him.
Arl set down his guitar and gazed up to the dark sky. The two of us sat together by the bonfire that night, looking up at all of the stars above. I picked up the guitar and strummed up a couple of songs. After an hour had passed, I put it down.
“Let go of her, man. Sometimes we search for somebody to love us, but it doesn’t work out that way. If you let Marie take control over you like this, it’ll destroy you. Can’t you look forward, and hope that something better comes your way?”
Arl gave me a bitter look, which soon faded into a shade of sorrow.
“No, you don’t know what it’s like. I really loved her, and Michael was my friend too.”
It was true. Arl and Michael had known each other for quite a while, and both were just as good on the guitar. But Michael and Marie shared a special connection that Arl had never been able to understand. Arl had been with so many girls that love had begun to seem more like a system to him.
Vegetables
Few other biology students could say that they matched my level of intellect in the sciences. When I was young, I had won many contests. My dream had always been to study at the most prestigious of schools, and now here I was, unimpressed and working on my final project which I carried out in secret.
For nearly four months, I had been developing a secret fertilizer that would speed up growth in plants. Already there had been much promise of success. Within only three days, I had caused a sunflower to grow from a seed to a fully mature plant. My next creation would be sure to earn me the acclamation which I desperately craved.
I set a pot with dirt on my desk, and carefully dug a small hole into it. Then I buried a couple of pumpkin seeds into it.
There was a vial of chemical X, which I had painstakingly prepared for this day; it’s mysterious content was a glowing blue liquid.
The next morning when I walked into the lab, I saw that the pumpkin had not only matured, but it was a colossal specimen! There were bits of the ceramic pot lying crushed underneath it’s weight.
I asked my good friend, Dr. Wilson to look over the plant and collect data on it the following night.
Dr. Wilson wasn’t in the lab the next morning. I kept calling him, but he wouldn’t answer his phone.
“Wilson, are you here?” I called out in the empty room, but there was no reply.
“I ate him.” said a voice.
“Wilson, dammit that’s not funny. Where are you?”
“No really, I ate him”, and the gigantic pumpkin turned over to face me. There was a mouth stretching from side to side of it’s face. I was a little surprised by this.
“Oh. Umm, I see. You ate him?” I asked the thing.
“Yeah, I was hungry. You mean the guy that was here a little while ago? He stuck his hand down my mouth, and before he knew it - Bam!, the dude totally fell for it, man.”
For nearly four months, I had been developing a secret fertilizer that would speed up growth in plants. Already there had been much promise of success. Within only three days, I had caused a sunflower to grow from a seed to a fully mature plant. My next creation would be sure to earn me the acclamation which I desperately craved.
I set a pot with dirt on my desk, and carefully dug a small hole into it. Then I buried a couple of pumpkin seeds into it.
There was a vial of chemical X, which I had painstakingly prepared for this day; it’s mysterious content was a glowing blue liquid.
The next morning when I walked into the lab, I saw that the pumpkin had not only matured, but it was a colossal specimen! There were bits of the ceramic pot lying crushed underneath it’s weight.
I asked my good friend, Dr. Wilson to look over the plant and collect data on it the following night.
Dr. Wilson wasn’t in the lab the next morning. I kept calling him, but he wouldn’t answer his phone.
“Wilson, are you here?” I called out in the empty room, but there was no reply.
“I ate him.” said a voice.
“Wilson, dammit that’s not funny. Where are you?”
“No really, I ate him”, and the gigantic pumpkin turned over to face me. There was a mouth stretching from side to side of it’s face. I was a little surprised by this.
“Oh. Umm, I see. You ate him?” I asked the thing.
“Yeah, I was hungry. You mean the guy that was here a little while ago? He stuck his hand down my mouth, and before he knew it - Bam!, the dude totally fell for it, man.”
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