Djinesin Synopsis
What if everything you thought you knew about the world was suddenly challenged on the day you graduated from high school? That is exactly what happens to Ryder Kingsly in the novel Djinesin. This is my first novel and in it I wanted to explore ideas about faith, predestination and purpose. Ryder is anything but your typical teenager. His father vanished leaving him to be raised by his father’s girlfriend. Together, they face economic uncertainty as many of us do. Ryder knows the only way out of poverty is education. In writing this novel I wanted the characters to come to life. I started the novel by first understanding who it’s about. Everyone featured in the book has a story all their own. They have their own dreams, desires, flaws, fears, and...
Quitting the Marts
For years my sister in law and her husband have refused to shop at Walmart because of allegations they bought products manufactured in sweatshops. Today the Huffington post broke a story about a letter found in cheap Halloween decorations from Kmart. The letter outlines the horrific working conditions in a labor camp in China. The letter is pictured to the left. The letter asks whoever finds it to forward a copy the world human rights organization. It’s no secret China doesn’t have a lot of law but a lot of order. The people there have lived in fear of Dynasties, and Commies for the better part of their history. I am a second generation half Chinese American. My grandparents fled China during the communist revolt. My great aunt was stoned to death in the town...
The M word
Don’t get too excited. Even though we all think congress is a bunch of bad mother… (shut your mouth!), that is not what this post is about. Even though the government has been shut down for 9 days now this post is about the other “m” word…. Moderate. Everyone on the right is now afraid to be called a moderate. On the left a moderate is basically anyone who cares about equality, minorities, and the environment without taking money from some eco-terrorist organization or any member of the American socialist party. Yet because of mounting pressure posed by teapartyists (TradeMark Pending), the word “moderate” has become a bad word for “republican”. A party that immortalizes the Ragan years has turned into a debacle of extremist...
The Choice
I heard on the news this week a statistic that shocked me. 1-3 women will have an abortion in her lifetime. I had never known what the exact statistic was and I had no idea it was so high. I’m not going to get into a moral pro-life pro-choice debate today. I have noticed though that Arizona, Texas, South Carolina and Mississippi have all recently enacted legislation to restrict access to abortion services. I personally do not see this as a direct war on women but I do see it as a dangerous solution to an imminent problem. States that restrict abortions take us back to pre- row v wade days of back alley abortions and self-performed abortions. I do not understand why this country only addresses the end result of a growing problem. The debate over abortion starts...
Quitting Smoking
So I did something I never thought I would do, I quit smoking. It was hard and I still get tempted sometimes. I finally reached the point where if I were to actually try and smoke again I would probably make myself ill. I know most people are happy to quit and enjoy all the health benefits of being a nonsmoker. I however, wish one thing would have stayed slightly impaired, my sense of smell. I have smoked since I was about 15 or 16 years old. That is almost 10 years total. In that time I have enjoyed not smelling unpleasant things. Obviously I would take notice if I walked by a dumpster or if someone ripped one in the room I was in. But I got to enjoy life without lots of little unpleasant odors. I realized I can’t stand the smell of half the cleaners I own....
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
So maybe I’m being a little mellow dramatic but things have seemed a bit odd to me lately. Now I know I’m probably going to lose a lot of street credibility by this post and I am prepared for that. It seems in the places I go people everywhere are forgetting how to do their jobs. Have you been to Mc Donald’s lately? I have, and I tried to order a cheese burger with ketchup and onions only. She literally gave me a bun with ketchup and onions. There was no cheese and no burger which I thought was a given part of my order. I went to the bank today. I told the teller 3 times I would pay cash for a cashier’s check. 3 times he asked if it was coming from checking or savings and then miss counted the money wrong twice because he forgot to pick up all of the...
Egypt overthrew their government again last week
The remarkable thing isn’t that they have now ousted two of the most powerful groups in the Middle East in the name of freedom. The remarkable thing is that this feat was accomplished by the youth of the nation. 50% of the population in Egypt is under 25. So I ask you by the time you were 25 what did you accomplish. To date I am currently 25. I am married college educated and employed. I have a half-finished book that I wrote the first page of as an undergraduate and I have over thrown 0 governments. I’m not trying to start a stir and I am certainly no anarchist. Yet in this country our youth don’t believe in themselves in the same way that they use to. Maybe it’s that many of us are children of the recession or came to age in it. You would think such...
