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.