India

So, I have an obsession with this country: India.

Ever since I began to learn about Indian mythology, Hinduism, in my Mythology class last semester, I have been hooked. Now, this semester I took yoga, and geography and have been learning even more about the country. So, let's take a look at some of the belief systems of India, beginning with Hinduism.

The belief of samasara is one that I find most interesting. The word is translated as "continuous flow" and refers to birth, life, and death. Hinduism does not see life as the beginning and death as the ending, because of the idea of samasara. Listen to this idea: In Hinduism, it is ignorance of one's true self that leads to ego-consciousness of the body and phenomenal world. This grounds one in desire and the perpetual chain of karma and reincarnation. Through egoism and desire one creates the causes for future becomings. The state of illusion that gives rise to this is known as Maya.

Sounds a bit like the matrix, huh? But this idea really stands out to me.

First off ... we know through sociology, and psychology how strongly our behaviors are shaped by those around us. We learn an incredible amount of knowledge from each other's behaviors and reactions to certain situations ... These ideas are similar in that not knowing the true self leaves a person open to this influence, and subject to karma and reincarnation, consequently. It is only when we can let this all go that we can truly see the world for what it is.

Let me give another example ... money. Money only has value because we agree that it does. Money, or anything "worth" a measurable sum, is really nothing in itself. It's a somewhat "rare," in some cases, shiny metal that came from the earth. Anything we agree has value is something that came from the earth itself. But, because we do not fully realize this concept, we are trapped in an economy with currency that we agree has a value.

I mean, I'm no philosophy teacher, but that's what I'm getting from this concept. Not to mention ... Hinduism is considered the oldest religion in the world, which is not really saying much if you think about it, but the fact that so many religions have been based upon this one, is intriguing.

In Mythology, the one thing I learned above anything else is that all religions seem to follow the same basic pattern, and that the stories all seem to be connected, in most cases, by their detail and structure regardless of whether the two groups had contact with each other, or not. Now, I don't know enough about all the religions just yet to say this with confidence, but if Hinduism is correct in it's belief of one life force then all the religions that human in this cycle could come up with, would be similar.

One of my main goals in life is to travel to India and learn more about this religion before I settle down into any careers. Money, as always, is the biggest deterrent but this trip will be worth it regardless.

Pineapples are where it's at

I just walked to the fridge to open it and re-discover that l lack sustenance, when I noticed my room mates pineapple orange banana juice. He had opened it, which means I can grab a sip without him knowing.

What I discovered is that pineapples are a delicious fruit. Of course, I already knew this, but as many things do, that thought faded away until a taste re-triggered the opinion. So, I tempted myself, "I would love to buy a nice juicy pineapple right now." Then, the environmental piece of me kicked in and wondered about how far the pineapple had to travel, filling up the air with burning fossil fuels, organic foods, and local farming. Essentially though, from where was this pineapple, is what I wondered and when is it in season?

The first thing I like to do is look at the origin of the word. I found out that the word comes from around the middle of the 17th century and was termed as such due to it's resemlance to a pine cone. So, that's that. Now, where does one go to pluck a pineapple?

The pineapple is indigenous to South America, but is now being grown all over the world. The natives of South America introduced the plant to the Indies, where Colombus found it and brought it to the Western World. It can now be found in Hawaii, the Philippines, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Guam, as some of the more common locations. The name "Dole" is likely familiar to most in the United States because a man by the name of James Dole began large scale production of Pineapple in Hawaii in the 1990s. Realistically though, pineapples can be grown all over the world under controlled conditions. It just can not be exposed to freezing conditions, or it will die.

In Southern Brazil and Paraguay, this fruit grows in the wild. The plant only fruits one Pineapple, then dies. This plant is a tropical plant, but can be exposed to temperatures as low as 28 degrees for brief periods of time without dying. Pineapples also do not require much rain in comparison to other plants, and can live with only 25-150 inches of rain annually.

So, in the summer, if a person would like to grow a pineapple, go for it! Or one could even grow it in the winter as long as it's grown inside with fluorescent plant lights.

Some music of Mexico

A common first thought on this topic is mariachi. The three main instruments used in mariachi is the guitarron, charango, and vihuela. The guitarron has a low sound to it and is used as the bass, though it does have six heavy strings (large guitar furthest to the left). It has a convex back.

The charango is traditionally made of an armadillo shell and is a small guitar (top middle). Modern versions are made of wood, however.

The vihuela (middle right) is used as a rhythm guitar with roots in Spain and has a convex back, as well. It is a bit smaller than the large guitarron.

The other instruments in the picture are of Latin American origin.

Now, let's look at a grammy award winning band, The Mars Volta, first. This band sounds like a big mess to unprepared ears, but once one listens a few times, he or she will start picking up on the concept, and may even fall in love.

So, why is The Mars Volta a topic on a geography blog? Well, start by taking a look at the background of two band members: Omar Alfredo Rodriquez-Lopez, Cedric Bixler-Zavala. These two are the backbone of The Mars Volta and have been working together since At the Drive-In, which is another awesome band.

Lopez is a multi-instrumentalist from Puerto-Rico and plays guitar in The Mars Volta.

Zavala is the vocalist of The Mars Volta and has a mexican background, but is raised in El Paso, Texas.

In their music the vocalist uses spanish and english in his lyrics and reflects Mexican music styles, many of which originally came from Spain.

Thai food

I figured I'd post an entry on the food I cooked for class, plus then you can all get the recipe. ; )

When I began looking up recipes, I had no idea what to pick. Some of the food turned me off immediately, but then I found the recipe for pad thai and it looked really tasty (even though I don't know what a few of the ingredients are). So, I called up my friend, and we hit up the store.

Here is the list of ingredients, the bolded items are the ones I actually used:

egg
fish sauce (substituted soy sauce)
garlic
dried chili pepper
ground pepper
shallots
sugar
tamarind
rice noodles
vegetable oil
tofu
shrimp
chinese chives (substituted regular chives)
peanuts
bean sprouts (substituted broccoli sprouts)
preserved turnip

This recipe is fairly flexible with what is added or omitted. The only ingredient I had trouble finding was the tamarind, though I eventually found it in the oriental foods section. The recipe states that white vinegar is a fine substitute for tamarind.

Because the dish is cooked on high heat and needs to be stirred constantly. I measured, and set out, all of my ingredients beforehand. Here is the exact recipe:

Soak the dry noodles in lukewarm water while preparing the other ingredients, for 5-10 minutes. Julienne tofu and cut into 1 inch long matchsticks. Cut up Chinese chives into 1 inch long pieces. Rinse the bean sprouts and save half for serving fresh. Mince shallot and garlic together. 

Use a wok. If you do not have a wok, any big pot will do. Heat it up on high heat and pour oil in the wok. Fry the peanuts until toasted and remove them from the wok. Add shallot, garlic and tofu and stir them until they start to brown. The noodles should be flexible but not expanded at this point. Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Stir quickly to keep things from sticking. Add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, chili pepper and preserved turnip. Stir. The heat should remain high. If your wok is not hot enough, you will see a lot of juice in the wok at this point. Turn up the heat, if it is the case. Make room for the egg by pushing all noodles to the side of the wok. Crack the egg onto the wok and scramble it until it is almost all cooked. Fold the egg into the noodles. Add shrimp and stir. Add bean sprouts, chives. Stir a few more times. The noodles should be soft and very tangled. 

As always, in Thailand, condiments such as sugar, chili pepper, vinegar and fish sauce are available at your table for your personal taste. Some people add more pepper or sugar at this point.


The recipe says to turn up the heat to high, but high heat was too hot, so I turned mine down to avoid burning. It's a pretty easy recipe, but kind of messy to cook without a wok.

Suicide in Japan

I have my computer screen saver set to display words and their definitions ... yes, I'm a word nerd, and one day "hara-kiri" came up. The definition it gave was "ritual suicide by disembowelment with a sword, formerly practiced in Japan by samurai as an honorable alternative to disgrace or execution," and I was immediately intrigued. So naturally I "googled" it and this is what I found out:

Samurai commonly had to get permission to perform this act. After some time this suicide became a planned ceremony. The ceremony was usually performed in front of spectators and was originally used to avoid capture by the enemy, but was extended to the use of dying honorably despite previous shame.

The sword that is used for the ceremony is called a tanto, which is a sword used by samurai. In the ceremony, the samurai would recite a death poem, then plunge the tanto into the stomach and cut from left to right. After this happened, another person would tilt the samurai's head back and slice so that just a flap of skin held the head on.

This practice was abolished in 1873 as a form of judicial punishment, however there have been several acts of seppuku that followed. Some of these include civilians and soldiers who did not wish to surrender after WWII, and Yukio Mishima who committed seppuku after failing to convince authorities to overthrow the government.

The Awesome Mbira

Picture A

    African music ... first off ... awesome! I love the complex drum beats so much ... but I recently learned about, and got to play with, an African instrument that I've never seen, or even heard before (to my knowledge). It's called the mbira (mmm-bee-rah) and it sounds so cool!

Picture B

    It has a xylophone-like sound, but not quite. One strikes the metal or bamboo keys and it sound somewhat like the xylophone, but it also makes this neat rattling sound. Picture A doesn't have the colorful metal pieces around the top of the metal bars like the Picture B does, but it has metal bottle caps attached to the metal board behind them to make the rattling sound common in mbira music. Below is a soundtrack of the mbira. Notice the buzzing sound of the mbira. Buzzing is a sound that is often found in African music.

Le Parkour -- Crazy Stuff!

In movies, people are always jumping from building to building, or from moving vehicles to escape the police, or the "bad guys" and we often think ... "is this realistic?" Well, I'm here to tell you that it is!

Welcome to the sport Le Parkour:

Here is a brief description: the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment. It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed.


In otherwords ... parkour is basically ridiculous moves, jumping from building to building, running up walls, and all sorts of crazy stunts. This is somewhat like the equivalent of American skateboarding without a board.


After watching a parkour video, I've determined that this skill would be best used in running from the police. How could they possibly keep up!?


Check it out ... seriously!