mase loves Ozzy.

yesterday my teammates josh and bobby and i went to visit our friend Ma$e. we were walking to the dunkin' donuts, our arranged meeting place, and a couple other guys asked us for money, so we took Bob and James out to eat as well. but unfortunately Mase was no where to be found. Our other teammate had made him cookies and everything. we sat in Dunkin' Donuts for a while and just figured he didn't make it. but lo and behold. Mase showed up, with more jackets on than last time. He ordered the "Ma$e's Delight" ( a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese and extra large coke, he gets it every time.)

we sat outside and listened to how he has 2 daughters and a son and how he loves to spend time with em because they are at an age where they need their dad alot.

he told us of his time in vietnam when he got "all shot to hell and back" and was carried out by his best friend Vinnie, an italian guy who now lives in Philly.

Mase, as it seems, is the life of the party among the guys that hang out at the bus stop. we found out that most of them are waiting for work vans to pull up so they can work for a while doing manual labor with whoever pulls up. Mase knows everyone and everyone knows mase.

truly, he's a genius. quite articulate and has a huge array of knowledge about early metal music.

you see, the reason mase is at our bus stop even though he lives over 30 blocks away, is because he loves music. The tweeter center is about 10 blocks from our bus station and he just sits and listens to whoever is playing on saturday nights. this week was aerosmith. he's not that big of a fan of aerosmith, but loves Black Sabbath, and began to sing "Iron Man," i also enjoy Black Sabbath and their contribution to music and began to sing along too, he knew the whole song verbatim. then he moved on to how much he liked AC/DC and his favorite newer band is Metallica, at least the "black album" era of Metallica.

it began to pour down rain, so we ended up standing just inside the door at dunkin' donuts with Mase and some of his friends just laughing and cutting up for about thirty minutes. it was an incredible time that i will hold sacred forever. i can't wait til next week.

ma$e

so my teamate josh and i were on a mission to get milk and bread and other essentials. and here's the story of how we returned without money or groceries:

so we walked up 4 blocks to catch the 453 bus which runs to the grocery store, and we were about to sit down on the corner when a lady came up to us and asked for money, so we said we'd buy her food, so we bought her a hoagie and found out her name was Deloris, and then i met a man named Fred who was standing out side the corner market and wanted an icey for 25 cents. so i got him one and Deloris and Fred were real thankful and we went back and waited for our bus. we waited for a long time and then our friend Dominique came by and said hey. Dominique's in third grade and walks tough. he's involved with an afterschool program called Urban Promise which is an amazing program that all the kids love and we're proud to be working with.

After dominique left a bus came and we asked if they went anywhere near the grocery store. infact no, it didn't and infact the bus we wanted doesn't run on sundays. of course it doesn't. so we walked back and josh and i talked about how it seemed like a pointless trip to the bus stop, except that we met Deloris and Fred and saw Dominique. then i thought about my travelling in europe with another josh and how we would pray that God would guide our steps and be put in specific places and how if we are open to it, it'll happen. so we kept walking back until i realized we passed a CVS and they probably at least had milk. so we walked over and this guy was sitting there and asked for money, we told him that we'd get him food after we grabbed milk. so we looked at the milk and it was really expensive so we just got a loaf of bread and went out to talk to our new friend, whose name is Selam. we talked with him for a while and he said that he was homeless and was waiting for his medical pay to come through and that he'd been waiting for months for it. we eventually said we'd go grab him food, because he didn't want to leave his stuff alone.

we walked to a local subway and a burly looking guy opened the door for us, we got our sandwich and both said we should take the guy who opened the door some food too, so we asked him what he wanted and he said he didn't want anything at first but told us his name, "mase." he had big drealocks and crazy eyes, and he eventually said that he'd take us up on a bagel and a coke. so we talked with him and he said that he usually comes to camden to listen to music on saturday nights (we like 3 blocks for a huge outdoor concert venue where i heard pink floyd's encore from our back steps)and then hangs out with his friends who sell fake gucci bags on the street on sunday. he told us he's here every sunday. and so we told him that we would be too, as we were walking away, he yells out from down the sidewalk.."Remember-- MASE!!!"

i am so pumped about hanging out with mase every sunday afternoon and eating lunch with him, i can't wait to learn who his is and to share who i am too. we made a new friend.

( i write this from a library in camden and the keyboard is real broken, so excuse spelling and all other problems including bad writing. cause that's the keyboards' fault too)

8:::am

it's truly here. after talking, trying to talk myself out of, praying about, and getting excited about going to philly, it is finally at it's initial moment.

i always wondered why in Apollo 13, the movie, why the one astronaut threw up when they were launching into the atmosphere and couldn't really figure it out. however, i think i know why now... because i sorta feel that way too. Getting hurled into something almost completely unknown-- that's why he chucked his "big breakfast." i feel for the guy. i realize there is a difference between space travel and living somewhere new. but it seems applicable enough.

hope all is well
-will


to quote and add on to a great prayer:
"may God guide our steps and guard our hearts" and give us strength

I choose you Communizar!

So I think that most of the Japanese fads that spread rapidly through the USofA are almost perfect. Each and everyone: Thunder Cats, Tamagotchi, Pokemon, all anime, I'm sure there are thousands more that I don't know of and don't know how to spell or pronounce.

their quickened pace, seizure inducing graphics, and all around incredible imaginative characterization of what modern or pre-modern or post-modern life might be like.

in junior high and the beginning of high school I rode the bus to school. This was no ordinary bus mind you. It was more of a glorified carpool, in which all ages were included. There was one kid, I truly can't recall his name, so I'll call him Bradley; though I'm pretty sure he was Jewish, so I'll call him Herschel. I really love traditional Jewish names.
so Herschel was 5. He couldn't read. Had an incredible speech impediment that you always want kids to have because it's cute, but hope that they grow out of it because it could be embarrassing. He would always get on the bus with his hair going everywhere cause he just woke up and would do one of two activities:::

sleep
or
act out pokemon and then tell you all the facts he could about each creature.

Herschel was a genius.

he knew that Bulbasaur evolved to Ivysaur at level 16, yet the boy could not tell time.

incredible that something from so far away made by people who speak at different language can have such an impact on Herschel and other kids who aren't even old enough to realize it.

I also enjoy the simplicity of the phrases and names. Syllables put together to make memorable names of characters.

pikachu. Perfect example. genius. If I could be Japanese, I would. Maybe.

I like community.

(terrible transition, I agree.)

at least I say I like community.

I've spent almost my entire life trying to be different and unique. Both things I still think are critical to learning and the growing up process.

when my brother played army, I played ninja.
when my school mates roller bladed, I began to skateboard.
when my brother and sister skied, I began snowboarding.
when my brother got a great scholarship to a notable university, I hated school.

mind you most of this is reactionary to my siblings, but still I was obviously separating myself in one way or another.

I think I am backlashing so hard against this now. I mean sure, I still think ninjas are great and I still have a dream of being a pro snowboarder. But, now I long for some sort of community where I can trust and rely that I might be understood. And that people may be like me. And that maybe I am not alone. Maybe I am not an island.( yeah, screw you simon & garfunkel...oh gosh. i'm kidding. i love your music. i have all your albums. even all the quasi-lame solo albums... oh gosh... i'm sorry. i love your music. i really like "graceland" and "rhythm of the saints" and it's cool that eno did the "soundscape" to your new record, mr. simon, even though the cover art is dumb...oh gosh... and mr. Garfunkel, well, your voice is an instrument and... nice hair?)

all those video games I grew up playing, I always put on the "invincibility" cheat codes. I thought it was great and you could do anything you want. But then it would get boring because there was no challenge.

I think some how in some way, this influenced me. I wish I were invincible still. I wish I didn't care about anything or anyone. And could run through life and nothing would cause an inconvenience and it would be easy.

well, I think that is boring. There is no vulnerability in that. There is no causal need for caring and kindness and generosity involved.

I want to live in a community where I am able to bleed. Where I can care for people because I know they are human and that they need other humans.

I hope I am going to be living in just such a community this next year in Camden, NJ.

I pray daily that my teammates and I will be this type of community with each other and with our neighbors.

I choose you Communizar!

( this sounds like a push for the Reds, but I assure you it's not.)

i'm moving.

looks like i'll be in camden, new jersey for the next year. loving people and learning alot.

usually i leave this blogging stuff to the pros, but i'd like to share this time with folks i love.