Ash

I've been away for a long, long time, and I'm sorry you all have been waiting for so long. I'll be more regular in the future. (I say that, but I don't know that for sure. Oh well.)

On a previous post, Burning Letters, I posted a piece called (You guessed it) Burning Letters that I said wasn't finished. I recently fixed it up, gave it a few new themes, a new ending, and a new title and all of this plastic surgery has (hopefully) created a better piece! Tell me what you think in the comments.

Ash

I liked you better when you were alive.
I'm pretty sure you would say the same about me, but
You've been gone for so long that I would rather remember you with a heartbeat
Than with ash slowly drifting up from within your throat,
Caught by the late autumn whispers.
I've burned a few letters to send to you, but I know I won't get a reply.
Turning cinders to paper is harder than the reverse.
I remembered your name today, after weeks of forgetfulness.
I took a sip of water to wash it down, but it got caught on the knot in my stomach.
I tried to wash away the soot but I couldn’t get rid of it,
You’re like smoke from a cigarette that I just can’t exhale.
So I’ll work to sweat you out,
I’ll stamp out the butt of the cig,
I’ll strengthen my lungs,
I’ll write about you and spit about you and tell everyone what happened to you
And I'll burn one last letter for you before I wash you down for good.

If you like my writing, you can join the site to the right of the page, like Speaking with Storms on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+ . If you have questions or just want to chat, I'm on Formspring too!

Thanks for reading. Stay human, my friends.

This Post is about Whatever I Want!

I'm suffering from a minor case of writer's block, so this post is pretty poorly organized and more a cathartic outlet of thoughts. I'm publishing it because why the fuck not?

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I have one fatal flaw: I'm really nice. What I mean is that I oftentimes worry about my friends to the point of being unable to worry about myself. My worst habit is observing other people's problems and making them my problems. This forces me to try and fix said problems, even if there is quite literally nothing that I can do. What ends up happening, then, is that I begin to feel really down because I feel like I didn't do all I could for that person. You can see how this can be an issue.

I've been quite worried about a few of my friends lately. Drugs, depression, unemployment, and general stress have been getting to them, at a dangerous level. I do what I can to try and support them, but I'm beginning to realize more and more every day that no one can help someone who won't help themselves. The other side of that coin is that I shouldn't try and help someone if they don't want my help, which is another thing I find hard to do.

Buddhism teaches that one person is unable to help another person unless they do not share suffering with that person. The Sanksrit/Pali word for "compassion", Karuṇā, literally means "to suffer with someone", so if we are already suffering ourselves from a specific issue, how can we hope to help another person and alleviate their suffering?

Compassion is that which makes the heart of the good move at the pain of others. It crushes and destroys the pain of others; thus, it is called compassion. It is called compassion because it shelters and embraces the distressed. --The Buddha

 So, what I have done in detaching myself from some people is difficult for me to do. In fact, I'm still trying to convince to myself that what I am doing is the right thing. All I can do is all I can do, though, and beyond that, they have to want to be helped.

I've written two different pieces that tackle that subject, one of which was posted earlier in "Ecstasy is Torment". Four days ago, I performed that piece in public for the first time and was met with a very unexpected response.

A girl who seemed younger than me by about a year or two came up to me after we had packed up and were beginning to leave. She caught my arm and asked if she could talk to me. She looked me in the eye and told me

"That piece about drugs you wrote came at exactly the right time for me. I have a few friends who are dealing with drugs right now and I've been really confused as to how to deal with them."

 I thanked her for her kind words and told her to stay strong, for her friends, but also for herself. To support her friend in the most positive way possible is the number one thing she can do. Walking away that day I realized that I had not been taking my own advice. I had been so caught up in how I felt I needed to help people that I did not realize I was suffering too much to be able to do so. Even as I type this, I smile knowing that my words had a positive impact on someone, and that in turn had a positive impact on me.

People always ask me why I write, and I always give them a different answer. Sometimes I say that I write so that I have a positive impact on people and to help people. Sometimes I say I write so that I can vent out some of my more negative emotions. Sometimes it's so that I can get people to think, to question. Sometimes, it's just for the wordplay, just for the rhyme scheme, just because I like having something to share. But a lot of the time, it's just for the hell of it.

I'm writing a Nuzlocke novella, as you might know, and I plan on doing 4 more (probably shorter than the current one, though), one for each "generation" of Pokemon. I'm re-writing a piece I lost in the hard drive crash called "I Stand". I'm writing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in which the most valuable and powerful substance is chocolate.

That wouldn't be too different than real life, now that I think about it.

Now, being true to this post's title, I will offer you something only tangentially relevant.

 

Just to offer a little bit of insight as to the kind of funny, quirky, entertaining improvising Random Receipts does.

If you like my writing, you can join the site to the right of the page, like Speaking with Storms on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. If you have questions or just want to chat, I'm on Formspring, too!

Peace and Love, thank you for reading!

Social Networking: Please Link Responsibly

So, I used to consider myself a fairly old-fashioned guy. I like paper books as opposed to E-readers, I play acoustic guitar, I follow Taoist philosophy, I wear a pretty straightforward style, I like to play games like Go... You know, pretty simple, right?

Well, I also make use of Facebook. And Twitter. And Formspring. And, obviously, Blogger. Social networking is, well... Big. Very big. Multibillion-dollar big. (Firefox spellcheck knows the word "multimillion" but not "multibillion". Inflation in action.) So, what do I do with these?

I socialize, obviously. What I mean is, I interact with hundreds of people simultaneously. For example, on my Facebook account, almost half of my friends are not from America or speak English as a second (sometimes third) language. On Formspring, I receive questions from people in Vietnam, Russia, Korea, California, and the US. On Twitter, I'm receiving information from famous people OR average joes, or anywhere in between! Anyone from Keith Olbermann to Weird Al Yankovic to Bill Maher to Nathan Fillion to the Dalai Lama to... You can see where I'm going with this.

As much as I would like to think that this means my sphere of influence is growing, looking mindfully into it reveals that the world is getting smaller. Anyone can share anything with almost anyone.I mean, hell-- News of the Libyan and Egyptian revolutions started ON FACEBOOK. Everything is turning to the Global rather than the Local now-- Even Pokemon!

I'm not kidding. In the newest games released in the franchise, a new feature was unveiled: The C-Gear, presumably short for Communications Gear. Upon activating the C-Gear, the Nintendo DS's wireless capabilities will automatically fire up. The interface has three options: Wireless, Wi-Fi, and Infrared.

The Japanese down below is a player's name.

Using the C-Gear, you can trade Pokemon with your friends, battle opponents from across oceans, and (if you are lucky enough to have a DSi or 3DS, which have cameras) Video-chat using the camera and microphones. Yup, that's right, Skype. On Pokemon.

All this has me thinking... In a world where information is everything, and everything is on the internet, how do we use this responsibly? What is the right way to use this global worldview? When everything is said and done, how do we reconcile the global with the local? Will everyone simply Tweet news, and forsake the newspaper? Will we stay indoors on sunny days for Formspring? Will we forget about Block parties and turn our heads toward mass online gatherings? Will we sacrifice face time for Facebook? 

Have we already?

Aside from that, if entire political upheavals can start on Facebook, what else can be sparked? What else will be sparked? Will information, already a form of currency, become a weapon (if it hasn't already)? If politicians have the power to deny access to the internet, and if we allow them to have it, what else will we freely give up?

As much as I am scared of these social networks, I'm going to keep using them (primarily Facebook and Twitter) because I am curious to a fault. I love being able to get information from all the way across the seas in seconds. However, when (and I say WHEN instead of IF on purpose) the day comes that the Social Network becomes too powerful for its own good, I'm going to cancel my accounts and I encourage you to do the same. For now, you can follow me on Twitter if you are so inclined.