車禍

昨天是我爺爺和姑媽的生日。大家都很快樂的在一起吃飯，慶祝生日。

在回家的時候，爸爸開車從曼哈頓回去布魯克林。爺爺告訴爸爸如何回去他家的路。
我們下布魯克林橋的時候，爺爺要爸爸右轉，在右轉的時候撞到另一台車子。
我們的車頭撞破了。

之後爺爺一直跟我們道歉，他不該指示爸爸如何開車。

Seuss I am

Call me Ishmael, not really. Bond, James Bond. No not that one either, its really Seuss Fu-Rubin, I am. I am named after the great rhythmically rhyming, sliming and timing, children's writer Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. My parents wanted a unique and rare name, and they figured naming me after an artist or writer was the best possible way to fulfill their goal of naming me something unusual, after all, they are funky artists themselves. They settled upon Seuss because he is clever, unpredictable, and creative in a fun and exciting way.

I like my name, I like it a lot, especially in a box, with a fox, wearing socks. Or in a house with a mouse. I like my name I really do. I get to call myself Doc, it's true. Others seem to like too. They really do. Though sometimes, people assume my name is pronounced Zeus like the thunder and lightning god of gods, from the high throne of Olympus he sits like King Derwin of Didd, he did.

My last name is equally unique, maybe even more so. It is a mixture of my mom's Chinese last name Fu, hyphenated with my dad's Western name Rubin. Why my parents didn't choose Rubin-Fu is because in Chinese culture, the family name is always said first out of respect for family, and in Western culture, the family name is traditionally said last. So it is as logical as the Lorax and his many great friends, that Fu would come before Rubin.

Finally, my Chinese name is a trans-alliteration of my English name, Fu-Rubin, Seuss. It is 傅魯本澍, pronounced Fu Ru Ben Shu. It translates as: The Rain God that comes and brings rain at the perfect time. My family in Taiwan, and most Mandarin speaking individuals, find this name very original and poetic. I feel very confident saying, I am the only person in the world with the name Seuss Fu-Rubin. Call me Seuss, or call me Doc, or call me 傅魯本澍, I like my name, I like it on a train I like it in the rain. I like my name.
Seuss I am.

Old Funky

The God of all Creativity and The Creation of Music

Long ago, there were only the natural sounds of water, rocks, soil, grass, rain, and snow in the world. The gods were very bored with it. Yet one god believed he could change life and make it more interesting, fun, and spicy, through creative sounds and poetic lyrics. His name was Old Funky.

He got his name because he was plain funky. Charlie “Bird” Parker, the great Jazz musician, even said: “After a good gig, he even smell funky!” He was born out of a rock that was rolling down a hill, it created strange yet intriguing rhythms that later became known as Rock & Roll. The first part of his body to come out of this stone were his hips, oddly they began to hop, and created a bopping beat. This was the creation of Hip Hop. As the stone grumbled to a stop, Old Funky was crying uncontrollably from all the pain he had just experienced, and like every thing about him his long melancholy sobs were filled with the poetic aspects of pain, and despair, and through this Rhythm & Blues was born.

The gods living up in the endless sky above took notice of the young being and soon realized that he was singing of not only his own pain, but also of everyone’s pain and failure, it was beautiful. These immortals were touched by this and decided to take him in so that he could live amongst them as a higher being. Old Funky was so glad that he began to sing a million different adjectives describing how grateful and happy he was. Whenever he excitedly rapped something positive, it was as if a blade of grass was popping through the dark soil to live free under the nurturing sun. Whenever he described anything deep and dark, he was as sad as a rock shivering helplessly being buried alive under an avalanche of bone chilling snow. These two different types of song created the major and minor keys of classical music. This was the foundation of Rock & Roll, Be Bop, Jazz, Pop, Blue Grass, Country, and many more forms of music around the world.

Old Funky’s voice could change into any instrument we know of today. His voice ranged from the highest alto flutes and squeakiest violins, to the lowest baritone trombones and basses. Whenever he sang a song, all it really was, was a beautiful piece of music. Although he created many masterpieces, we do not know of them for he had a horrible memory and forgot things immediately. This was caused by the fact that he was always strutting forward to compose the next song but never moonwalked back to enjoy the amazing work he had created in the past. This taught him a valuable lesson, and that was to share the experience so every one can listen to music and remember it, and so that at any given time all human beings can have the ability to share the emotions of every day life.

Recovery

At home, my life has been overwhelmed by pain, blood, crustiness, and stuffiness. It has not been fun living and I will tell you why.

It was stuffed up, and I couldn't breath with my nose what so ever due to incredible clogging up of goo, and unreliable swelling. I was forced to use my mouth to breath along with the normal functions of eating, drinking, and talking. It was difficult and lead to a cat rough tongue, and cardboard dry mouth. Living through those four melancholy days was miserable and depressing. I was suffering badly and want to die. There was no soul in me.

Somehow, I was lived through this unpleasant, painful, and snotty situation and now, my nose is one-thousand times better then it used to be, I am grateful for that. Thank you to my parents for helping me through this journey, and my nose doctor, Willian M. Portnoy for doing the operation. I give special thanks to these the heroes!

2012 Junior Olympic 100 fly

STARGAZER

As the moon goes down I, Bok Chok, go up to work as head chief astronomer (stargazer) at the El Catacol astronomy observatory in Chichen Itza, my home town. What is it an astronomer does at work? It’s simple, but requires a universe of patience while studying and calculating the movements of the stars, moon and sun. I found the Milky Way and correctly predicted eclipses. I believe my team of astronomical Mayans will be the best astronomers on the planet.

Our workspace is very large. It is called the temple of El Catacol, it is the only observatory in our whole Mayan culture. Even Copan, the city of astronomers, does not have an observatory. El Catacol is a stone structure with a swervey spiral staircase that leads up to the observing room. This special room has large windows, taller than me and wider too, but I’m pretty short, I am only five foot three in height and one foot in width. I believe the architects (designers and builders), were smart enough to know that we astronomers need  to see as much of the sky as possible, so they made the windows large. We are now able to see the whole sky.

From our observatory, we have been able to make many predictions about our solar system (system in space). We can predict when eclipses will occur. Our older generations created and named constellations, such as one called Tzab, the rattlesnake rattle. We astronomers work very hard for our current king, we have calculated time for him and our culture by looking at the movements of our sun, moon, and stars. The planet Venus we consider, for more then eight-hundred generations, the war planet because when it’s in the right place in the sky we believe it is the perfect time to attack our enemy savages. Another observation we have made is that it takes the moon 29.53 days to complete its cycle, which is equal to one of our Mayan months.

We even use astronomy for scheduling savage sacrifices (killing invaders), and for our sacred ball game... Pok-A-Tok! These invaders are usually Spanish Crusaders. When we catch them we bring these enemies to our tallest temple, rip their hearts out, fling their hearts as far as we can, and role their limp bodies down the steep, sloping steps of the temple of the Serpent God, Lord Kukulcán. I know this makes us safer, but it still gives me the willies.

It is our (we astronomers) job to keep an eye on our weather from our magnificent observatory to schedule the right day for our gruesome ball game. Pok-A-Tok can not be played in undesirable weather, because it is considered very disrespectful to the gods. This game requires toughness. A rubber ball is hit using any part of your body, except your hands and feet, and the ball must stay off the ground. The team that wins is the team that puts the ball through the hoop the most times. The captain of the losing team loses his head while the rest of the losing team become slaves. I am so glad I am an astrologer.

Once again the moon is coming down and once again I am going back up to live my life in this amazing observatory. I enjoy studying the solar system that helps to run our daily lives as Mayans.

Jumpy Jazz

Abstract art fills my eyes. Blending, and gradating shapes of color spread across my pupils. With texture translucent palette-knifed onto the canvas. These colors are bright and dull, mild and spicy, black and white, and all the other color in the spectrum. I saw H, HB and B pencil marking that showed the process of the artist and the shapes.

As I stood up close to view the paintings, everything was separated and segregated, but when I stepped back, it bonded together and made it full. By doing this, looking close and from the distance, I had two perspectives on a single art piece. These paintings are by an art gallery called the Causey Contemporary in the Williamsburg. At the first, I didn’t want to go to the gallery, but my parents talk me into it and I really liked the jumpy jazz pieces. Plus, it is my mom’s birthday so I have to do anything she wants me to.