That Is That
Performed by Won By One
from the independent release “Goin’ 2 Da Church”
She is beautiful.
She is a young Haitian girl living in the Dominican Republic.
The public schools in the Domincan are supposed to allow her to attend. Instead they exclude her and many other Haitian children because they are often undocumented and sometimes orphans and/or homeless. As a result, this young girl and 26 other Haitian children ranging in ages from pre-schoolers through junior high schoolers are receiving their educations in a one-room shanty from a pair of Haitian pastors.
I was invited to visit the school and meet the children during my recent trip to the Dominican. It bothered me a great deal as this school is just 5 minutes away from well-appointed public and private schools in the heart of one of the Dominican’s largest cities.
A tomb in the Panteon Nacional (National Mausoleum) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
![thedailywhat:
RIP: Ralph McQuarrie, a conceptual artist best known for designing several key Star Wars characters including Darth Vader and Chewbacca, passed away today in Los Angeles. He was 82.
In addition to his influential work on the original Star Wars trilogy — indeed, his designs are said to have convinced 20th Century Fox to greenlight the first film — McQuarrie is also remembered for designing the look of the original Battlestar Galactica series as well as the alien spaceships in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET.
“His influence on design will be felt forever,” reads a statement posted to his official website. There’s no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say… ‘that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted.’”
[tor / geeksofdoom.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ce69YzZ01qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
RIP: Ralph McQuarrie, a conceptual artist best known for designing several key Star Wars characters including Darth Vader and Chewbacca, passed away today in Los Angeles. He was 82.
In addition to his influential work on the original Star Wars trilogy — indeed, his designs are said to have convinced 20th Century Fox to greenlight the first film — McQuarrie is also remembered for designing the look of the original Battlestar Galactica series as well as the alien spaceships in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET.
“His influence on design will be felt forever,” reads a statement posted to his official website. There’s no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say… ‘that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted.’”
[tor / geeksofdoom.]
(via cocacaleb)
During Carnaval in La Vega, Dominican Republic, clubs known as “cuevas (caves)” dress in ornate, demonic-looking costumes as they march in parades and entertain the crowds as they promote various street concerts that they host as part of the festivities.
I found the party-goers to be generally easy-going and fun-loving and the atmosphere to be both friendly and festive. It was definitely much more polite than Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the crowds much easier to navigate and deal with.
Moving and shooting in the late evening light at Carnaval in La Vega, DR, proved to be a bit of a challenge. Thus, this photo turned out a bit out of focus. Still, I just fell in love with this young man’s bold statement with those makeshift earrings.
La Vega, Dominican Republic, Motorbike Ride
by GreaseMonkey Photo
Darth Stuffy
by GreaseMonkey Photo
Decisions
The toughest decisions in our lives are often made by the seat of our pants.
We try to prepare ourselves with wisdom and knowledge. We try to draw on our experience and training. The fact of the matter is, though, that we don’t often get any more time than it takes for us to simply follow our hearts and hope for the very best.
What’s worse is that there is seldom, if ever, anyone there when it’s over to pin a medal on our chest, shake our hand, and tell us that we did a good job of it. Instead we are mostly just left with little more than our consciences to bear witness to us as to whether we have done the right thing or not. Then we get to spend the rest of our lives on this Earth wrestling with that moment, re-thinking our process, re-evaluating our choices, imagining what might have been had we opted some other way.
In the end, all we can ever truly do is our best with whatever we are handed. No one could ask us for any more than that and we can be held to no other standard.
You were made for The Plan and The Plan is PERFECT!
