Food, Music, and Compassion

Yes, I know you've been waiting. I am here to inform you, it is here. The Food Blog has arrived! I bet you're pretty excited. This flips the page to a new chapter in my bloglife. I know most food blogs include pictures of food that people have cooked themselves, but I think that's overrated. It's all about food that other people make and you just happen to have a camera around so you take a picture of it. Holla! Although, one of the pictures in this post is something I made myself, can you guess which one it is? It's a toughie, mostly because of my culinary skillz that killz.

(click for bigger pix)


Which one did I make???

So yeah I was thinking about food. And about music. Something about those two things is so intriguing. I mean, God (yeah you knew it would turn into a thing about God) could have made us like plants, just sucking up rays from the sun for our energy. But nah, he made food. What a great idea. And then there's music. I wish I could learn theory. Why is there music? What the eff is music? Why do certain notes just sound right with other notes? Why is music mathematical? Why does it all make sense? Crazy stuff...

So I'm taking a class about human happiness (only at Berkeley!). It's pretty interesting. The professor makes the claim that compassion or love is something that humans have evolved to have; essentially, compassion is an adaptation that enables a given organism to have a better chance of surviving. I actually hate the idea... that one day a caveman said, "Well shizz, when I show compassion to my cavebrotha, I actually have a greater chance of helping my genes pass through the generations!" I like the idea of love as this abstract, nice idea. If compassion is what my professor says it is, does that make it any less significant? Any less beautiful? ehh I dunno.

Just makes me wonder though. If he can reduce something like compassion down to an evolutionary byproduct, what else is up in the air? Does my food just taste good because the homo sapien has developed an affinity for fats and salts because of its scarcity in the evolutionary environment? Is music just a mating call?? What is life??? Who am I????

Yeeeaaaahhh... well I dunno what this post is about. Definitely not an argument for or against evolution, so don't get all butthurt about that kinda stuff. Sometimes it's just interesting hearing things that challenge concepts that you have taken for granted for so long. And I think that's a good thing.

More to come, thanks for reading.

Be careful what you blog about...

...Because God freakin reads this crap. Hi God :)

So like, if you're an avid Real Talk reader, then you may recall certain posts like, "We Believe" (about miracles) and the followup to that post, "God Hears Me!" If you have not read those, it would behoove you to peruse them quickly (SAT word usage points holla!). This post is similar in such that it is a followup of the previous post, "Knuck If You Buck." At the end of that post you, being the observant avid reader that you are, may recall that I said something to the effect of "I need to work on my LCA (Loving Christian Approach to confrontation)." Well, it is with great honor and privilege that I announce to you this simultaneously fortunate and unfortunate news: God gave me another opportunity to do that today. Sigh... I mean, yay.

So my homeboy and I needed to go back home (Frisco Reppizzent!) today for church and I needed to pick up my sexy new guitar casefrom Dan (www.monocase.com). So we get to the bart station and we're waiting for the train to come, and like three or four gangstas come up to us and start talking to us (bad sign). From experience, when gangstas are up to no good, they always ask you questions like, "Where you from?" "Where you going?" or, in Clay's case, "Do you have a wallet?" haha. But anyways, these guys are hovering around us and you just get that bad feeling in your gut like, Dang I just wanna go to a safe place. Eventually the train comes and we hop on one car while the gangstas hop on the adjacent one. I'm thinking Whew. Ok, they're on a different car, we're good. Sike! They walk on over to our car, sit in the seats surrounding us and start being annoying. For me and my friend, this is just miserable. After a minute or so, we get pocket checked.
Now, I've been pocket checked before. I still remember when me and my homeboy Tim decided to go to Popeyes in the Fillmore (/Fillmo!) after school one day in sophomore year. Stupid idea. Then when we get our chicken, we decide to eat on a bench on the sidewalk. Even stupider idea. Yeah. Let's just say I lost about twenty bucks that day. Not fun. So I was having flashbacks of that while these guys were messing with us today.
But anyways, one of the guys comes up next to me and tells me to empty my pockets. With my best tough face on I reply, "I don't got nothing for you man." He grabs his belt as if he's gonna pull out a weapon or something, but you can kinda tell it's an act, and he keeps talking crap. Luckily, we get to the next stop and me and my friend stand up to leave. With some shoving and a few unkind words, we're outta there. They don't follow us. We kinda laugh it off, but we're a little shaken up. I guess I'm just glad that things didn't end up worse.

But like, I dunno wtfreak is going on here. Like, is it just coincidence that this happened today? Or is there something going on here that I don't know about... So like, God, if you happen to be reading this right now, I just wanna let you know that you're cool and all, and yes, I do like it when you answer prayers, but... yknow... cmon now. When I pray to be challenged and put in uncomfortable situations, maaayybeee you could ease up a bit on those... yeah.
Ok, I don't really believe that, and I do still hope that God challenges me to help me grow. But dang, this past morning sucked big ones. And like, the question remains: how do you love people like that? ... those who are out to get you for no good reason. I know that I have Jesus as my example, but it's just so dang difficult. Maybe I'm just an angry person haha... Sigh. I think I just have to work on my loving. Join me, will you?

Knuck if you Buck

There's this song that came out like three or four years ago called "Knuck if you Buck." My friend Ethan used to say it to me in high school, which is how I learned it. Basically, it means "if you're gonna talk crap, you better be willing to throw down and fight."(SH pride! Go Irish)
So today, after playing this ridiculous game called Munchkins, some friends and I went to La Burrita to grab some yum yum goodness in the form of a taco salad. While we were chillin there, waiting for our food, we overhear some stuff going down at the tables where some people are eating. This one fool was doing a lot of talking to this asian guy sitting at another table. He was saying a bunch of pretty messed up stuff about asian people and was just being a real jerk to him. Me and my friends just looked at each other like... wow this guy's a real idiot. I was standing pretty close to the dude, but my back was turned because I was seriously getting fed up with his crap. He kept on talking sh- and I could feel him tapping on my backpack. At that point, in my head I'm just like, Oh hell no. My trusty sympathetic nervous system kicks in, heart starts beating, fists clench, four letter words start working their way into my head. And it's just like, I need to get out of this place or else I'm gonna go Chris Brown on this guy.So I walk out of the place, I really feel like kicking the parking meter, but I know that wouldn't do anyone any good, so I just kinda walk it off. Surressly though, the guy was so ignorant.
But have you ever had experiences like that? I can point to a couple instances in my life where I've been in small confrontations with strangers. And that kinda stuff just sticks in my mind for hecka long and I just think of all the things I could have said. There are generally a couple approaches that I always consider:
1) Excessively Sarcastic Approach (ESA) - you combat their ignorance by being an even better and more skilled jerk. You attack sensitive subjects, you disregard any concern for their feelings, and you use the most ridiculously annoying tone of voice.
2) Logical Argument Approach (LAA) - you combat their ignorance with superior logic, rhetoric, and argumentative skillz. With great Berkeley intelligence, you make them doubt their own abilities and knowledge, or maybe you are willing to simply reach an understandable compromise with them.
3) Feigned Deafness Approach (FDA, not to be confused with the Food and Drug Administration) - you frustrate and thus silence your opponent by completely ignoring them and showing absolutely no emotion.
4) Loving Christian Approach (LCA) - you silence them with kindness and goodwill, doing your best not to get angry or frustrated, no matter how much crap they talk. You put on a big smile, shake their hand, buy them food, and maybe even give them a hug, because you know they are loved by God and therefore have just as much worth as you do.... ok I dunno.

As I was walking home, I was definitely thinking through these four techniques. And then I kinda got stuck on the LCA... If, hypothetically, I went up to the crap-talking dude while he was being a jerk, and I said with a sincere heart, "You know, I don't know why you're saying all this crap, but there's this God up there and he's still crazy about you, no matter how much garbage comes outta your mouth." what would he do? Call me a faggot like he was doing to everyone else? What would Jesus do in this situation (cliche phrase, yes, but it bears some thought)? What does it really mean when we're told to love our enemies? Jesus seemed to practice a little of the FDA and the LCA while he was being mocked on his way to the cross... He didn't say much at all, but he did pray for their forgiveness. I think if I tried to do a little LCA, I'd still be muttering cuss words under my breath. I guess it's something I gotta work on. But I think tonight was good food for thought... How do we love the people who are ridiculously hard to love? Hopefully I won't have to have another encounter like tonight's anytime soon, but I'm sure something like this will come again. I'll start working on my LCA.