i wish i had some pictures to share

just a little news in my world you might want to be aware of...
on july 19th, i asked renata to marry me! some of you who read this know her; some of you do not, so i will give you a little background...

we met back in 2005 while we both were in spain. it was basically my last full week in spain after my two year stay, and i was in the southern city of malaga helping translate for a group of students who had come down from northern europe to do some community outreach in the area. most of the people were from norway, sweden, denmark, germany and the like, so they spoke english rather well, but very little spanish. i noticed one of the leaders from their group, however, speaking spanish, so i asked around where she was from. i was told she was a brazilian that had been raised in miami.

i was stunned! having so little time left in spain, i had been planning for months what i would be doing upon returning to the USA. i decided (some months in advance) to finish my schooling at florida international university in miami. i then debated with myself about approaching her and talking to her about miami, what it was like, about churches and other opportunities in the area... we were both encouraged and exchanged email addresses. she was also in her last week in europe after working and touring with the norway-based organization "jesus revolution." she was going to be on vacation in brazil for a few months after leaving spain, and then would be continuing her collegiate education in miami in january, 2006.

so fate (?) would have it that i arrived to miami the 3rd of january, while she arrived the 2nd. we had exchanged a few emails while i was in tampa and she was in rio, beginning to get to know a little bit about each other. needless to say, after a couple of weeks of hanging out and getting to know each other, we decided to take the plunge and begin a relationship on january 19, 2006.

fast forward a year and a half later, after a nice night in miami beach, we stopped at a lifeguard station and listened to the waves, just as we had done on our very first night together as an "official" item. i pulled out the little box, showing her the ring as i opened it up and asked her to marry me. and of course, she said yes! so now we're very happily engaged, with a wedding and a life together in the works.

a penny saved is a penny earned

i've never been a monetary genius.
i work, earn money, spend some and save some. i don't buy much on credit and pay all my bills on time. i would imagine i'm in the same category as many people when it comes to my money handling skills, only possibly slightly more on the conservative side.
but living here in miami, i've begun to notice something that i don't recall noticing before. it has been about 18 months since i came to reside in the magic city, and starting about 3 months ago, i noticed that not every cashier gives me back my correct change.
example:
place: taco bell
items: cheesy bean and rice burrito and a crunchwrap supreme
total cost: $2.99
paid: $10.00
change owed: $7.01
*here's the kicker*
change received: $7.00
a discrepancy of one cent.
normally, being shorted a penny wouldn't bother me. people make mistakes, , a nickel is mistaken for a penny, incorrect change is handed out, yadda yadda yadda...
but the problem is that it has happened at least four times recently. maybe i wouldn't have ever noticed it if i hadn't had gotten off on the wrong foot with a cashier at the local snack shop at my university. she owed me a penny after i bought some chips, and as i was there waiting for her to give me my receipt and penny, she looked at me with a snide look and said, "do you really want your penny?"
"yes, of course" i calmly replied.
she looked at me as if i had lived in some parallel universe where i had missed the memo that actually wanting the change that was rightly owed to me was some sort of prerequisite for hospitalization.
then a couple of days later it happened again. i was in a local pharmacy getting some supplies when i just happened to have one cent over my total. i handed over the money and was given in return only my reciept. no penny...
second time same as first, only this time no option.
the third and fourth times were at local eating establishments where, in the same way as before, i gave exactly one cent over my total and was given nothing in return. i had the full intention of putting the penny in the ronald mcdonald fund, but even that chance of a small contribution was denied to me.
why all the fuss over four cents? i've thought of at least two lessons i've learned...
1) no matter what the value, one must be respectful of others' belongings. give people what they are owed, in the name of integrity and fairness. faithfulness in the little things is a must before being entrusted with bigger things. which leads me to my second thought...
2) perceptions of importance are not universal. just because a penny is worthless to you doesn't mean that it's worthless to everyone else... i'm sure benjamin franklin would have been more vocal than i was, demanding his four unreturned pennies back under the mantra of "a penny saved is a penny earned."

a couple of things

as some of you may know, i am a fan of good hip-hop. the first addition to my now (in my opinion) extensive musical library was Nu Thang by DC Talk. whether you define that as good or not (if you have even heard it) is irrelevant, because i was (1992-1983=...) 9 years old at the time. it was the first album i had that didnt sound like my parents' music. now i know when we all grow up, we usually go back and realize that some of what our parents listened to was pretty cool, but the first time you listened to something that made your parents go "what is that?" probably planted a little seed of independence in your tender, impressionable heart.
[random thought]
thanks, mom and dad, for the beatles, jackson 5, the supremes, the temptations, elvis, the beach boys, rich mullins and innumerable other artists for their influence on my life.
[/random thought]
back to hip hop. i liked it as a kid, as did many other white suburbanites like myself. there was us3, coolio, skee-lo, ahmad (back in the day... anyone? anyone??) and others that i would watch MTV and wait patiently for. i also owned all of DC Talk's albums at one point (up until jesus freak, that is...) i begged my parents to buy me those yellowish construction boots, and anything with the red, yellow, green and black of cross colours, and a silver chain.
point made...
then dc talk released a "grunge" song, snoop was smoking weed and drinking 40s. tupac was mad, biggie was a pimp... and me? i was alienated. they were writing songs and making videos about a life i could in no way comprehend (especially at 11-12 years old), so i stopped listening. at my 8th grade end of the year school dance, they played the offspring and green day and i was changed forever. soon after, i discovered mxpx, five iron frenzy and blink 182 and the whole world of independent/underground/counter culture/local music. after wading through the waters of operation ivy, squad five o, 90 lb wuss, appleseed cast, weezer, the huntingtons, roadside monument, mineral, gloria record, cap'n jazz, zao, living sacrifice, strongarm and various other local and national acts from various genres, i thought i had left hip hop behind.
but i had a sampler cd that i picked up somewhere from a record label and it had a few hip hop tracks on it. i listened to it and liked it, but didnt think much more about it. then, while shopping for new music, i found a promotional copy of one of those groups in the used bin for $8 at a local music store. they were on a label i had heard of, but mostly in relation to underground rock bands (jackson rubio). i went out on a limb and bought it, and to this day it is one of the cd's i listen to most. the rise and fall of... by brainwash projects is truly a classic cd, but more than that, it resurrected a dead genre to me. hip hop had made its way back into my life and is still a daily part of it. la symphony (and all related artists), beastie boys, deepspace 5 (and all related artists, talib kweli, living legends... they all have a place in my collection.
why did i write all of this? more next time...

--i went to college, then i left. that's when i got my education.
-- how ill would i be with a degree? it could just be a piece of paper to me.

a message to everyone

if youre reading this, i remember you and the times we had. i miss you and i hope all is well. may you live guided by the grace of god and live in his goodness.
--joel

maybe i watch the news too much

from an interview with an iraqi refugee in syria...

"I once knew a man that said if Saddam (Hussein) were taken from power, he'd sacrifice a sheep. Now, he says that if Saddam were brought back, he'd sacrifice a bull."

It's not easy. Nothing about this issue is easy. Despot murderous dictators should have no place in society, but all too often they do, and all too often, they are not acting alone. The respect for human life, the dignity and sovereignity of an individual, the platform we all share as brothers and sisters that have come from one common seed... These are not the concerns of tyrants. (I pause to ask, how often are the aforementioned our concerns? Just a thought...)

But this is where I come back to the original quote. As I wrote, these tyrants are not working alone, and it is the potential inaction of people like the man in the quote that provides support. I am led to believe that if this man's desired situation were to return, that is, theoretically, a Saddam-like dictator taking control of Iraq, his support of this man for the sake of his own comfort would make him implicitly culpable of any mass crime possibly committed by the dictator. Simply put, with Saddam Hussein in charge, the possibility of a high degree of freedom was very low, while without him, the potentiality of freedom is high. Conversely, under Saddam, order was maintained, but at the cost of human rights violations, mass government sanctioned murders and restricted daily freedoms for the majority of the population.
However, as someone once said (read: Spidey's uncle), with great power comes great responsibilty. In this area, all have failed. The United States ignored centuries of power centralized under one ruler in an area where the idea of democracy is equated to whoever can amass the most power. Moreover, the stories of rape and murder, the photos of Abu Ghraib inmates and indiscriminate and/or accidental bombings are also equated with the idea of democracy. No public relations campaign can correct those errors, as they create personal wounds that will scar for years. And so to, the Iraqis have failed. They have been given great power, and they have not been responsible with it. The nation is divided, and it will only truly be fixed with confession, humility and repentence...

I wanted to make a parallel to include the recent passing of Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, a polemic figure himself, but it is late and I'm going to bed. Have fun reading and let your thoughts be heard.

please excuse the sudden fascination

this is meant as nothing more than an exposure. may it evoke whatever feeling you deem appropriate.