Fruits and Flowers

Happy Holi!

I was supposed to continue writing last week, but I couldn't put the words together.  Therefore, I am more determined to write two blogs this week.  However belated this maybe, I'd like to wish you a very Happy Holi!  As you may know, Holi is the festival of colors vividly played in India to welcome the new crops and harvesting season.  Many believe that when Lord Hanuman swallowed the sun (because there is no fruit that is as ripe as the sun), men and women threw different colors towards the sky to emulate the sun's bright colors and bring light back into the world.  When nothing else worked, Lord Hanuman was offered great knowledge of the environment in exchange for the sun.  Another more popular story of Holi describes the efforts of a vain demon Holika who could touch fire without burning herself.  Holika attempted to kill her Prahlad who worshipped Lord Vishnu instead of his own father, demon king Hiranyakashyap.  Eventually the battle was won by "Good" when Holika pershished in the fire that was meant to burn Prahlad.  As this story suggest, most families in India throw fistfuls of Holi and other offerings into a sacred fire signifying the end of evil and the beginning of happier and colorful days.  On this note, there is no mention of India of a bollywood movie is not involved.  Here is one of my favorite Classic Hindi Flim Songs for the occasion:

I want World Peace.

LAUSD Superintendent recently proposed to reduce the academic year by 6 days in order to save money. The supporting argument is that if we reduce costs this year, we can keep the school district running in the long run. The choice is difficult: do you purposely make children dumb or do you allow bad economic decisions made by politicians and corporations make children dumb? Apparently, it is very important for the LAUSD board to have control over our children's ignorance.


Well, it's very important for me to have control over world peace, so here's what I suggest:
1) Withhold education from all the children in our community.
2) Give our soldiers PTSD by forcing them to go to war unnecessarily.
3) Raise taxes for middle income population and give the money to CEOs of multi-national companies.
4) Make the CEOs buy expensive yachts and Oil Refineries so that our coastline can completely disappear.
5) Cancel all welfare aid so that we don’t have to keep track of the low income population.
6) Shut down mental health agencies which serve those who make us look bad.
7) Blame everything on terrorists.
8) Burn all the terrorists at the stake in the town square.
9) Hope that lightening hits everyone who doesn’t agree with us.
10) Eat Cake.

If everyone just does what I say, we will have world peace.

Who can we blame?

First Lady Michelle Obama recently kicked off the campaign to prevent and fight childhood obesity. She listed several culprits as the cause of childhood obesity, such as lack of physical exercise, questionable dietary decisions, and ambiguous labels on food products. Mrs. Obama has also listed resources and encouraged parents to seek support in maintaining their children's weight. Upon careful examination of available of resources for children at-risk of obesity, there is no wonder that children are gaining weight at a rapid rate. Organic fruits and vegetables cost twice as much as chips and cakes. Vending machines dispensing soda are more available then machines with juice and milk. Furthermore, even if grocery stores trash all processed foods and lower prices on health goods, parents may not have time to cook or actually enforce a healthy diet in the home. While living in a world that never stops, families are surrounded by laptops, iPods, cell phones, and video games. The fact is that children would rather play on their Xbox then jog around the neighborhood. Many dieticians encourage exercise over reducing calorie intake. That's a great thought, but where do kids go to exercise? Who teaches children helpful stretches and warm-up routines? How do parents and schools get the money to pay for sports teams and sports gear? Yes! It all boils down to money.


This topic is especially close to me as my undergraduate thesis was on the cost and benefits of afterschool programs. These programs included afterschool tutoring in math, science, and English like subjects, as well as afterschool sports practices and athletic camps. The benefits are obvious to in class academic tutoring: more homework help for struggling children, higher test scores, better grades and most chances to go to a good college. The same results were yielded from athletic programs offered to children afterschool, in fact, these programs gave boast to children's self esteem. Children who participated in afterschool sports reported to be happier with attending their schools, versus children who sat in a classroom for an hour after a whole day of sitting in classrooms. Don't get me wrong, math and reading are very important especially because now countries labeled as "Third world territories" are excelling in those subjects and are taking over North American job markets. However, the message is very clear: children want to move, they don't want to sit all day they are forced to sit all day. Moving actually helps children learn more.

The costs however somehow seem to overweigh these messages. Due to the "No Child Left Behind Act" schools are concentrating more of their resources towards math and reading. Physical Education classes, afterschool recreational programs, and social enrichment projects were put in the back burner as these components are not measured in NCLB standardized testing. Parents usually have to dig into their pockets for extra change they can throw away at the school for athletic activities and enrichment programs. It seems to me that our government is preaching exactly what we want to hear about childhood obesity, but they are not providing any means of support to actually get the results that we want.

The fact is that children from lower socioeconomic status are more at risk of being overweight due to lack of an appropriate diet, poor access to medical care, and most importantly no athletic services. Children from less affluent neighborhoods have to travel to other communities for extra curricular activities - though sometimes these efforts are futile as they don't qualify to be involved with these activities due to residential boundaries. If yoga classes are offered, arguments about its religious ties erupt in lieu of concentrating on the physical benefits which yoga provides to participants of all ages. Some school districts run on track systems where students go to school for two months and then sit at home for two months so that other children can go to school. Furthermore, families living in gang infested areas sometimes feel more secure staying indoors with windows and doors sealed, rather than allow their children to be playing outside and be exposed to drive-by shootings and gang recruitment tactics. During the recent economic crisis, how many legislators stopped to ask whether some economic bailouts could be allocated towards children's project? There are many critics and not enough solutions. Here's a solution: hold schools accountable for giving children the right amount of exercise every school day. Give school more aid for athletic programs and enrichment activities which stimulate students' bodies and minds. Get rid of the track systems and open more schools in highly populated neighborhoods so that children are not sitting at home for half of the school year. Increase parent education and hold them responsible for putting their children's physical welfare first. Develop more community programs across denser neighborhoods which encourage participation from all children regardless of residential boundaries.

First Lady's initiative towards reducing childhood obesity is a good example which more legislators need to be following. These goals must be included in the general child welfare scheme and not just be blamed on food labels and corporations that market junk food to children. Let's start by spending money on our children instead of our "comfortable" lifestyles.

Farmville vs. Reality

I began to play Farmville because it helped me clear my head. I was mindlessly moving from task to task, crop to tree, sheep to horse, clicking away, earning coins, and arranging my buildings to yield aesthetic results. I didn't think about my pending college loans, didn't worry about documenting my interaction with clients at work, and didn’t care about anything, except which crop to plant and how long I had to harvest the crop before the batch withered. Mindless, clicking, refreshing, plowing, fertilizing, and finally harvesting.
After a few months of denying my addiction, I realized that my time may be better spent if I blogged about what's in my head, instead of trying to clear it by engaging in a fantasy life. Of course, I didn't know where to begin. I stared at the empty page for hours. I attempted to hold a pen and begin writing in a notebook - well I ended up making many picture of flowers and shaded patterns.

So now, I've finally inaugurated my blog by the one thing that I can't seem to stop doing - Farmville. Many of my clients use substances like alcohol or drugs to empty their minds. I use my farm. It's a perfect setting when you think about it. I have a plot of land all to myself. I can build a house, a lodge, an estate, or just a resting tent. I can have barns, storage buildings, gardens sheds, chicken coops, and my latest addition: library and school. I can plant any crop I want at any time of the year. As long as I harvest the crops at the perfect time, I'll always get fresh pumpkins, grapes, even green tea. The real money making machines are the trees. I can plot lemon trees next to the plum tree, I don't have to water them, I can harvest them whenever I want (trees don't wither like the plowed crops) - I always get fresh fruit. Just like with the crops though, I the fruits get automatically sold at a generous price, without even having to put up a shop (although I have a general store and a couple of fruit stands just for decoration purposes: P ). Crops and trees only take a small part of my time though. I spend lots of minutes harvesting eggs from my multi colored chickens (yes, I have white, black, brown, even gold!), I brush reindeers (it was fun during the holidays, but now their sole purpose is to make me money), I collect wool from sheep and lamb, truffles from pigs, horse hair, and even circus peanuts from my two elephants (only available to join Farmville before it gained stardom). The best part is when I find baby calves in cow sheds and chicken eggs with mystery presents all my friends. BTW, it's also important to have real life friends playing this game with you because they are the ones gifting you flower bouquets, trees and animals. Currently, I'm attempting to get my friends to help me expand my barns and build my horse stable.

For those of you still reading this, I ask you this: how is our reality similar to life on Farmville? Just like on our farm, we have to create our own tasks, refine it until it's ready to be implemented, and finally follow through with the task until the end before the deadline. Consequently, we must arrange and re-arrange our daily schedules based on our needs, based on the needs of others, and based on availability of resources. We walk through mundane routines at work, hoping that the balance in our bank accounts continues to rise, we spend money in the marketplace for goods based on how much we have in those bank accounts, and we make sacrifices when we realize that our wants are greater than our pockets. And of course, there are the seasonal changes that automatically affect our daily routines and personal goals.

This to some is real life...this to me is my farm life. Thus, I have dedicated my first blog to all those who recognize the truth of our reality and especially to those who choose to live that reality on their farm.