Thoughts on Death and Life..

The main news story that will more than likely be talked about for weeks to come, will be the passing away of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Death is a regular part of every day life and when we hear the death of those who have been immortalized or are such a vital part of our culture, it gives a dose of reality. I'm not one who believes that humans are going to be immortal, but I do think that one day will come when I will no longer be on this earth. The clothes I wear, the books I have stored up, the friends I make, everything one day will not remember me.

Think about it, in fifty years, nobody will know I ever breathed on this earth.

Yet, there are some who believe that they will be remembered for a long time. Look at Hedi and Spencer Pratt, they are everywhere in the news. People are disgusted at their childish behavior and some people wish that they would be the ones who are deceased. Yet, the attiudes that they present are almost shocking, they want alot of attention and they're getting it right now. But in 25-50 years, will anyone remember their tyrate on TV? I don't think so.

What am I trying to say?

Enjoy the day..it might be your last.

Why?

Thinking About Play

I recently came across an article by one of my favorite websites on the importance of play. This blog is currently in a series about using this month become more masculine by doing simple tasks like performing service, doing a debt reduction program and checking yourself for cancer. At first when I read this article about playing, it sounded almost in contraction of what I was raised to believe. When I was a child, I was told once I was an adult that I could no longer play because I had to be responsible and get a job which would take away the opportunity for playing. As a child, this reality struck a nerve because I wanted to find time to play, no matter what I was doing.

However, both being a working man and a playing man seem to go hand in hand. The following quote that the article references from the National Institute of Play shows this balance:

“Play refreshes a long-term adult-adult relationship; some of the hallmarks of its refreshing, oxygenating action are: humor, the enjoyment of novelty, the capacity to share a lighthearted sense of the world’s ironies, the enjoyment of mutual storytelling , the capacity to openly divulge imagination and fantasies, … These playful communications and interactions, when nourished, produce a climate for easy connection and deepening, more rewarding relationship – true intimacy.

Take play out of the mix, and like the oxygen deprived cyanotic, the relationship becomes a survival endurance contest. Without play skills, the repertoire to deal with inevitable stresses is narrowed. Even if loyalty, responsibility, duty, and steadfastness remain, without playfulness there will be insufficient vitality left over to keep the relationship buoyant and satisfying.”

That's why I am a firm believer in doing activities that are out of the box and will continue to play as long as I live.

President Barack Obama, Commander in Chief, Fly-Swatter Extraordinaire.

What Does A Dictator's Son and I Have In Common?

I have been using computers since I was six or seven years old. I was eight when my mom snapped this picture of my older sister and I, while we were in the middle of one of our many games on the computer. I remember the day that my father told us that we were going to be getting something called "the internet." I was confused at first what this meant but when I looked around the "communities" and saw that what it meant was interacting with different people all around the world, I was hooked. I remember finding it very exciting to communicate with people from different areas within the US and abroad. My parents didn't worry too much about their eight year old son chatting with strangers, only rule was I could not share our family's email account or tell anyone my "ASL" (age/sex/location). I followed this rule religiously until I met "Gabby." I was in an IRC chatroom for young people and Gabby was one of the more interesting people I encountered in the chatroom. She was funny, smart, flirty and she was able to construct her sentences well. I was in love with her, even though I had not seen any pictures of her and I wanted to know more about her. I remember the rush that I felt when I gave her my email with the hope of having one on one conversations with my internet crush. After I hit the enter key on our old mac computer, terror came over me and immediately I felt sick to my stomach.


Recently, I read this story about another young man who developed an internet romance with a woman he had never met before. They would chat for long periods of time and sparks began to fly between the two lovers. Unlike most of the internet romance stories we hear on the news that end tragically, it has a big plot twist almost like in a movie. The young man is the son of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his woman is actually a 46 year old male journalist from the states. The journalist was using his dialogue with the dictator's son to reveal how the Cuban government has forbidden their citizens from getting online via their homes or internet cafes.

After I had told my parents that I told Gabby our email, I was told not to do it again and to be more careful of who I shared my private information with whoever I talked to online. Now as a long-time internet user of fifteen years, I have better discernment of who I share my information with. Castro's son should have been more careful of his 'net fling because of the consequences of his actions.

College Peers or Heroes?

As I compose this blog entry, I am also listening to/kind of watching the ASU baseball World Series game. When I was a child, I loved watching ASU sports every moment I could. The athletes I would watch or hear on the radio were my heroes, as a boy they seemed like superheroes achving the unbelievable. I watched Bill Frieder coach the SunDevils to monstrous wins and devestating defeats, I was at the edge of my seat when ASU almost won the national champtionship only to lose in the Rose Bowl, I loved listening to the play by play on the radio while I tried to emmulate the actions I heard.

I was deteremined that I would become an ASU SunDevil, graduate at the top of my class, join a faterity, play one of the sports, date and marry a cheerleader. When I got accepted in ASU, I was estatic. My dream was coming true and I couldn't wait for classes to begin. I had similar emotions like when I was a younger boy eagerly awaiting for Christmas to arrive.

I'm a senior right now, in fact earlier in the day, I applied for graduation which means my undergrad life as a SunDevil is coming to an end as I will walk in December. I didn't play any college sports, the fraterity life no longer appeals to me, I have not met a cheerleader that I would consider marriage with and my gpa is average. Yet, while watching the SunDevils try and get a win from Texas, I feel very connected to my fellow SunDevils. They have walked the same halls that I have, pulled all nighters in the library and some, their college lives are coming to an end too. Instead of looking at these peers as celebrities who are distant from me, I see them as peers, who experience the same joy and pain that I have faced.

I think that being a college student during the same time as these guys helps put a heavy dose of reality into my thinking. It makes these athletes seem more human than superman which makes me cheer them on more passionately and geninuely as I see them as people, who hit the snooze button, dislike Scantron tests and are not too different from you and me.

Twitter and Community

When a friend of mine pointed me to check out this video. I think he was trying to make a point to me as I tend to give people a daily account of my life with my twitter. Its facinating to see how a website that limits the updates to only 140 words or less. It is a fun activity trying to sum up your thoughts in a quick and to the point fashion. Yet, I think this video highlights something that is more foundational than people having the need for atttention. I think social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help fullfill the need that people have for community or having people around them. It may not seem exactly like that they acomplish this goal but those sites help people feel like they belong to one another and I think that can be a good thing. For instance, I am "friends" with several people whom I've known for years which we are truly friends but others are ones that I have met at parties or casual functions, so it is hard to classify us as friends. But yet it is helpful in the building process because you can see what interests or hobbies other people have, but also you can see more to the person than what you encountered when you met them in person.

Still, I think this humor filled look at the life of twitter can be a good reminder for us all. We need face to face friendships and not just ones that are online. There is something to be said about spending quality time with people outside the sphere of tweets and wall posts, it helps people grow closer in ways that twitter and facebook will never achive.

Modern Art, A Struggle Between Love and Hatred.

One of the greatest things I have come to embrace and appreciate about my upbringing was the emphasis on the world of the arts. My mother would arrange field trips to the symphony, ballet, theater, and art gallery openings. I remember walking through these great places with my little jaw on the ground as I would be in awe of the creativity and beauty that was around me. However, when it came to seeing what was considered modern art, my jaw would continue to be on the ground but it would be out of frustration and not awe. It seems like these two different jaw dropping experiences seem to be people's reaction to art created these days, either people love the skill and out of the box approach the artist took, or indgination is present because of their prejudices of what art is to look like.

I was on my way to class today and I was trying to find inspiration for what to blog about, when I saw this piece of art at one of the light rail stations. It immediately caught my attention due to its simplicity and beauty. Yet, as I continued to look at it and analyze it, it baffled me. As humans, we all have hands but where the differences come from what we do with them. Do we use them for good or evil? Are they showing care or contempt?


I think this a good example of the power of art, it causes us to think outside of what we're familiar with and push our imagination to grow. I don't know the meaning of what the artist was intending with this piece, but it worked. I can't shake the image out of my head as I think about what these hands are communicating. Yet, it is frustrating to find meaning with something you do not the direct meaning, so there's a little bit of hatred.

Perplexed at Pareidolia

It seemed like a fairly average lunch time for me. I was sitting outside eating my meal from Taco Bell and the weather outside was very beautiful. I was about to take a bite out of my delicious Crunchwrap Supreme and then I saw it.

The face of Optimums Prime was staring right back at me. It was a sign of the Apocalypse and the end of my existence was about to take place. Immediately, I snapped a photo of my meal before the four horsemen began galloping into my direction.

Actually, there was not doomsday experience, in fact after I snapped the photo, I ate my food. For a brief second, I fell under the trap that many people do on a daily basis, they have an experience of Pareidolia. Simply put, these are those experiences are the ones we hear about on the news of people who see faces in every day objects. Some of the more popular ones were the people who see Jesus in food or the Virgin Mary in the sky. I found a website dedicated to this phenomenon (http://www.bad-language.com/popetart). It is incredible to me that people are so willing to pay thousands of dollars to purchase an object that is simply, an object.

As a Christian, I hear on a regular basis of people who have seen Jesus in the skies or Mary in their food which I can't help but be skeptical of this account. I think it is incredible that people's immaginations have gotten ahold of them and they are able to see these signs and call them wonders. Still, I can't wrap my head around why people are drawn to this artifcats because they don't help move our society forward, junk at the end of the day is still junk. Like my lunch above, they are part of our daily life, but they have no redeeming value in of themselves. If anything, it makes religon or any image that people claim to have seen become less credible. It's an icon that everyone is familiar with, like my Crunchwrap Supreme, I saw a icon from a tv show and movie.This did not help me become a better person, but in fact it put a smile on my face before I devoured my lunch. I guess that's why images within the relm of Pareidolia are so popular, because it puts a smile on our face and if that's the case, then let's look at it as art, instead of a sign from God.

A Trip To The Future....Laughing All The Way

A panda bear walks into a bar and orders a sandwich. The waiter brings him the sandwich. The panda bear eats it, pulls out a pistol, kills the waiter, and gets up and starts to walk out.

The bartender yells for him to stop. The panda bear asks, “What do you want?” The bartender replies, “First you come in here, order food, kill my waiter, then try to go without paying for your food.”

The panda bear turns around and says, “Hey! I’m a Panda. Look it up!” The bartender goes into the back room and looks up panda bear in the encyclopedia, which read: “Panda: a bear-like marsupial originating in Asian regions. Known largely for it’s stark black and white coloring. Eats shoots and leaves.”

I love to laugh. It is nearly impossible for me to go an entire day without laughing at something or someone. Laughter is one of my biggest stress relievers and which also has been proven to help out your immune system as well, so not only am I relieving stressing but I'm also doing something to help my body out. I enjoy watching funny movies, hearing funny stories or jokes, or being in funny situations (as evidenced by this story that I wrote about last fall: http://limitedhero.blogspot.com/2008/11/laughter.html). My family shares in this passion as laughter has been one of our ways of dealing with life's many difficult times, the picture above of my older sister and I was above was taken during Christmas time when things in our family was not going very smoothly.

As I approach my final semester of college, there seems to be a good deal of pressure on college seniors to worry and be fearful of what the future holds for us. We hear all the time that job security isn't as strong as it use to be, our country is headed to a greater depression, finding the job of your dreams is nearly impossible or finding someone you want to spend the rest of your life much more challenging than in previous times. It seems to me that in these situations, we forget our ability to laugh.

I was watching Conan O'Brien a couple of nights ago and one of his segments was called, "In The Year 3000." In this sketch, Andy Richter and Conan wear cheesy space costumes, almost reminiscent of old sci-fi films from the fifties. They go back and forth sharing one liners about what the future will be like, which I found hysterical. Their jokes ranging from political figures, sports athletes, celebrities and technology. One joke in particular made me laugh very hard was when Conan announced that Facebook, Twitter and Youtube merged into one website entitled, "You Twit Face."

I think that this comedic look into what will be the headlines in 991 years made it's point very clear. The future as far away as it seems is not something to be afraid of, but there will always be things there to remind us to laugh. It's like a modern day, Capre Diem, by seizing the day, we will find joy in life which will help us keep our head above the growing tides of uncertanity.

Who knows what my future will hold after I graduate in December? I do know this, I will laugh, often and frequently.

Welcome to my blog! And Who Is This Guy?

Greetings and Saluta...

Who ever greets people like that these days? I mean come on, we're not all in some 1930's movie, so a simple hello is in order. This blog was created for my Communication Approaches To Popular Culture that I am taking in the summer at Arizona State. Our teacher Scott Boras (not the sports agent) is experimenting with us blogging through out the semester about pop culture. I have no idea what I will writing on, in fact I just came up with the title for this blog, five minutes ago.

Why Pop Culture: Dreams, Detours and Defenestration?

I think that in our culture or at least in my eyes, culture seems to be seen through three different perspectives. One is through our dreams, without our dreams, I think it's impossible to find fulfillment in life or whatever you do. Second, finding the exciting and creative parts of our culture, you have to detour from the mainstream and you will find something much more rewarding than what's played on the radio, what's the top ten at the box office or what's on network television. Finally, I personally love words and the word defenestration (next to the word bastard) is one of my favorite words, in case you have no clue what it means, Defenestration is simply the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. So, if you've ever had the urge to chuck your computer or textbook or significant other out the window because of your frustration, you would be definistrating them.

Okay, so who is this guy?

I cheated on this part, because I don't enjoy talking about myself. So I copied and pasted from one of those twenty-five things about you survey that has gone on facebook for years on end. Hopefully, this will give you a better insight into who I am.

1) My full name is Marco Paz Galusha-Luna, when I was younger I went by Marco but when I was seven in Cub Scouts, I was called Marco Polo and I didn’t like it so I decided to go by Paz. However, before settling on Paz, I told my family I wanted to be called Jimmy or George. My uncle Alex still calls me Jimmy and when I have to write down a name at a restaurant or Starbucks, I put Mark down. Paz is pronounced like paws on a dog or pause on the vcr. I find it ironic that my names are in contradiction of each other, Marco means war or warrior and Paz means peace. So, I like to tell people that I am a warrior of peace.

2) Growing up, I loved sports, in particular basketball. When I was eight years old, my mom bought me a fisher price basketball hoop that I set up on my neighborhood’s driveway (she didn’t mind) and would play for hours by myself, since none of my friends shared in my enthusiasm for the sport. When I wasn’t doing schoolwork or when I was suppose to do school, I would read basketball statistic books and enjoyed every detail what I read. When the basketball strike happened in 1998, I was crushed and stopped focusing so much on basketball and checked out other sports but now, basketball still has a place in my heart even though I can appreciate all sports, well except hockey.

3) I’ve never really known what I wanted to do as a vocation. I knew from a young age that God had called me to have a wife and children, but in order to support them; I had no clue what to do. I’ve thought about being a teacher, a scientist, a pastor, athlete, sports statistician, politician, writer, bed and breakfast owner, and pub owner, owner of a bookstore/coffee shop. Now that I'm approaching graduation in December, I'm thinking of doing communtiy relations either in the nonprofit sector or in the public arena. But becoming a pastor is still something near and dear to my heart, because I love people and I love the Lord.

4) I tend to very critical of “Christian Culture”, like music, movies, clothing, books, etc. I see it as more of a distraction to my faith instead of a good thing. I despise going to “Christian” bookstore and would rather buy my Christian books at a used bookstore or a secular establishment. I very seldom listen to Christian radio, but every once and awhile I find something that has a good message.

5) I am petrified of mice, hamsters and rats. Any furry rodent that a cat could turn into their next meal scares the crap out of me. I think this fear came from watching the Nutcracker ballet at age two and I haven’t been able to shake it off. My older sister used this fear to her advantage growing up, so did many other people. I won’t even go into the mice section of a pet store because I get really scared.

6) I would much rather be outside doing things instead of being cooped up indoors. I love looking at clouds, enjoying natural A/C and letting creation remind me of our Creator.

7) I don’t like wearing shoes. I wear them, but if I could be barefoot I would do it in a heartbeat. I once climbed camelback mountain without shoes and socks and it was a great feeling. Thankfully, I didn’t get any cuts or bruises. When I do wear shoes, I like wearing my chucks and argyle socks. Very seldom do my socks match.

8) It is very easy for me to make friends, but I find it harder to maintain friendships. I had friends growing up but many of them were one-sided. I still struggle with this because I want people to like me but also I want to be real with them.

9) I love traveling. I’ve traveled to 39 states, Germany, Mexico, Canada and Switzerland. I hope to travel more when I am married and with children. Call me crazy, but I think it would be fun, and you can hold me to that. ☺ Oh..and I've never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld.

10) I enjoy writing, but it’s not something I love. I went through phases in my writing where I would write poetry, prose, song lyrics, short stories etc. I find writing is like therapy and a way of expressing my emotions and thoughts. I tend to be very critical of my writing. To the point where I use it as a way of forcing myself to be a better writer. I maintain a blog where I write cultural musings from a Christian perspective, it's not like chicken soup for the soul crap or some Christian yelling into a megaphone, but combing creativity, culture and my faith is something I do on a regular basis.

11) I have worn glasses since I was six years old and even though many times I have the opportunity to get contacts, I kept glasses. I don’t plan on ditching them ever.

12) I love music, although growing up I was raised on listening to classical music and CCM (Christian Contempary Music) when I was with my mother. My father let us kids listen to reggae music and my uncle introduced me to Jazz. I have tried to go an entire day without listening to music and it was torture. I listen to just about everything and anyone, my rule is that I try to keep an open mind and not judge any genre or artist until ive heard enough of that to formulate an opinion. Check out what I am listening to via lastfm: http://www.last.fm/user/poetichero

13) I have a secret obsession on watching movie trailers and music videos. I love the story that music videos show, so I tend to watch rock & rock or indie rock videos over hip-hop and rap. I love watching trailers, I once spent two hours just watching movie trailers…speaking of movies

14) I cry during movies. It usually is either the story or the beauty of the film that has made me cry. Some of the movies that made me cry: The Fall, Dead Poet’s Society, Life is Beautiful, Bedtime Stories, Wall-E

15) I love books. As a child going to a bookstore or library was on my list of favorite things to do, because of the many books to read. I tend to read many books at one time on top of my regular school textbooks. I think the longest I have spent either in the library or a bookstore is 7 hours. Even then, I was sad that we had to leave. I hope to instill in my children some day this love of reading. I also love how books smell.

16) I don’t like LOST, American Idol, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, and CSI. Instead I enjoy watching Psych, Monk, Man Vs. Wild, Mythbusters, Pushing Daisies and SportsCenter and older shows like anything on PBS, MST3K, The Red Green Show and SNL (sometimes)

17) I used to hypervelate when our computer crashed when I was a kid. Because I was on it more than anyone else in the family, I’d get blamed for any problems. One time I accidentally placed our hard drive on a floppy disk..

18) I like using Macintosh products, I am not a snobby Mac user even though I have used and enjoyed some aspects of PC.

19) I like planning out of the box type of events for people to come and have a good time. I planned the first ever Arizona Winter Suburbian Olympics This summer, I'm planning a couple of events at the Polytechnic Campus (because I live and work out there), if you're interested in doing some pretty cool things and meeting some new friends in the process, talk to me either online, in person or over the phone.

20) I am very accident-prone but I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve severely bruised my rib cage, gotten very bad cuts stitches too many times, sprained my ankle, gotten concussions, had MRI’s, EKG’s, etc.

21) In 2005, I got run over by a city bus while riding my bicycle home from work, in 2006, on my way to work, a Nissan Xterra drove through a stop sign and hit me head on, in 2007 on my way on my bike to a midterm, I looked down for a brief second and when I looked up I plowed the bike into a parked (key word, parked) camper trailer, resulting in a concussion, bloody nose and lip, and a B+ on my midterm. In 2008: I didn’t get into any accidents on my bike and So far in the six months of 2009: nothing..so far.

22) Because I'm a socialized introvert, I have a presence on facebook (just search for my name, Marco Paz Galusha-Luna and we can be friends), twitter (my name there is marcopaz), aim: (s/n: pazwwjd) and google chat: (poetichero@gmail.com) I am online all hours during the day, talking with my family and friends. Showing my mom how to use instant messaging was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. Thankfully, she has no idea how to text.

23) I love food and will eat anything without getting sick, but I will not eat peas. I don’t mind split pea soup but peas are yucky. Some of the more weird food i've eaten is octopus, catcus and live goldfish. At at church camp, I ate 12 live goldfish and a cup of spam. For weeks after the camp, I had people coming up asking me if I got sick at all, which I did not. I guess because I enjoy eating sushi. Recently, at a graduation party, I ate twenty jalepeons while standing up without water. I guess you could say I'm competive.

24) I told my mother that I would never drink alcohol, smoke, cuss, have sex before I’m married, listen to rock & roll and get a tattoo. So far, I enjoy drinking wine and beer (in moderation), smoking my tobacco pipe, cigars and hookah, cuss (funny, people who curse on a regular basis tell me that I don’t know how to), listen to all kinds of music (see #12). I will have sex when I’m married and I plan on getting tattoos soon and when I graduate.

25) What is my only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.