If you live in a world full of desperation, do not despair. If you live in a world full of lies, do not lie. If you live in a world full of cheating, do not cheat. If you live in a world full of blind followers, do not blindly follow. If you live in a …
During Easter mass on Sunday, Father Glynn’s sermon was about starting over. He talked about a woman who had had a very tough life who, one day, decided that she was simply going to leave her past behind and begin a new life. Her story, like Jesus’ resurrection, stood as symbols that we are all …
Palm Sunday celebrates the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, days before his last supper and crucifixion. As a form of honoring him, his disciples and others laid their cloaks on the ground before him. Those who had no cloaks laid palm fronds on the ground. When I was …
(Click on the picture for a bigger version.) Yesterday, one of our clients asked me to do some cartoons to help promote a video that discusses addiction to videogames. The above drawing is one of them. I’m not sure if I was ever addicted to videogames, even though I sometimes played 4-6 hours a day. …
To celebrate my birthday, Kristie got us a pair of tickets to be audience members of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. We were two of 113 “show enhancers”, in a room with about 10 rows of seats facing a small stage. The stage was surprisingly much smaller than what I thought it would …
During D.L. Hughley’s CNN show, guest Rabbi Shmuley said this: “…one of the reasons that the economy tanked is that we’re so empty on the inside because of the absence of love, that we need to stuff all kinds of junk inside, thinking it’s going to satisfy us. And it doesn’t satisfy us.” At first …
Disclaimer: Just the fact that I write a blog, to be read by the public, that I do not simply keep to myself (even though many would probably like me to), shows that in some way, even a little, I am a victim of my own hubris. In the movie Watchmen, the character Adrian Veidt, …
Article written for Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Schoolguides website, March 9, 2009 During lunch last week, my business partner noticed that our waitress had beautifully painted nails, done in an elaborate harlequin pattern. My business partner often gets her own nails done, and asked the waitress where she got hers done. The …
I got pulled over by a police car for approximately thirty seconds today. I was driving under the speed limit, but my right headlight had a burned out bulb, and so I thought I was going to be cited for that. After I saw the flashing lights behind me, I parked my car next to …
It’s an automatic thing, something I gravitate toward. I often find myself at a store, staring at a shelf full of Blu-Ray DVDs. There is always a movie on sale, always something cheap enough to buy, to hold in my hand while I walk around the store, later ripping open the plastic wrapping and sticking …
When I was four years old, I drew cartoons. I would often draw funny cartoons that made me giggle selfishly. When I was six, I learned handwriting in between drawing my cartoons. When I was fifteen, I learned how to draft orthographic views using a 2H pencil, a compass and a triangle. When I was …
Description: Selections from copy that was researched and written for the USC Department of Surgery division of Hepatobiliary Surgery website and patient handout, dated February 12, 2009. Pancreas Transplant Patient Guide Unlike heart, liver and lung transplants, pancreas transplants are not necessarily performed to save a life, but to improve the quality of life. A pancreas transplant is …
Click on this link and read, goddamn it: {Freezing Death of Michigan Man in House Sparks Anger} Marvin Schur was 93 years old when he froze to death in his home. After not paying his electric bills for 4 months, a machine called a “limiter” was attached to his home’s electricity. This machine determines when …
I haven’t looked for it, but I bet that somewhere there’s a “Short and Stocky Asian Geeks Who Think They Know Everything” club. I bet that that club will have a manifesto, and upon reading that manifesto, club members will feel really good about themselves. I bet that if I joined that club, I would …
Article written for Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Schoolguides website, January 14, 2009 In Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers, he talks about the 10,000-Hour Rule. The rule estimates that it takes 10,000 hours of studying and working at a certain skill before someone becomes really good at it. After 10,000 hours learning and …
During college, one of my professors said this: “I hate writing, I love having written.” And attributed it to a writer, whom I’d forgotten after taking the class. Since then, I’d been trying to track down the writer. Turns out it’s Dorothy Parker. Yay.
Let us not speak these words only once a year, or once a month, or once every week, at a specified moment and place, in the presence of others. Instead, let us be reminded of them, and be caretakers of them, with every single breath that we take, beginning now. May we understand ourselves without …
A man interrupted one of the Buddha’s lectures with a flood of abuse. Buddha waited until he had finished and then asked him, “If a man offered a gift to another but the gift was declined, to whom would the gift belong?” “To the one who offered it,” said the man. “Then,” said the Buddha, …
You give but little when you give of your possessions.It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows …
Christmas is a time when I can buy more than what I already buy during the year. Christmas is when I can show off to others how good I am at decorating, gift-giving, and outward charity. Christmas gives me the excuse to stress myself out and look like a martyr doing unnecessary chores. Christmas is …