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Tuesday, April 29, 2003
ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ANNUAL "JUST DON'T GET IT" AWARDS posted on 4/29/2003 02:56:13 PM by agentCB
OPERATION DEEP FRY posted on 4/23/2003 05:15:28 PM by agentCB
SPIRITUAL MONDAY posted on 4/21/2003 10:43:21 AM by agentCB
SURREALITY posted on 4/16/2003 01:53:05 AM by agentCB
BEAUTY SCHOOL posted on 4/10/2003 04:18:16 PM by agentCB
RESOLUTION posted on 4/08/2003 10:41:50 PM by agentCB
HYSTERICAL LANDMARK posted on 4/03/2003 03:15:59 PM by agentCB
BANNED IN THE USA posted on 4/02/2003 11:22:48 PM by agentCB
whether or not this award is annual, monthly, daily, or hell even hourly, will be determined to the level of ignorance and stupidity i stumble across in my day-to-day shenanigans. basically, this award will single out the best and the brightest examples of ignorance in our society and world here in the good ol' USA. hope you enjoy...
today's winner: (TIE)
1.creator of the playing cards with saddam and his cohorts on them.
2. whoever passed them out to the troops in iraq
first of all, the cards pretty much sum up how dumb we can be sometimes. trivializing war is never a wise thing to do in my book, and with saddam as the ace of spades, you can only think as to how this makes the US look to everyone else in this big blue planet of ours. a big gas face to the person who made these cards, they're hella ugly on top of everything else. not even good design. and now we get internet spam about buying these fuckin cards. great.
secondly, seeing how the US is unpopular these days with the rest of the world, i find it interesting that the military would sanction something as asinine as these playing cards. maybe i'm making a big deal about this, but this is a good example of people not understanding why we are in the war in the first place.
gas face to all involved in this debacle...
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
the latest attack on iraq begins with the introduction of fast food joints to the people of iraq. heard on npr the other day that mcdonald's and other franchises will be setting up restaurants in trailers in iraq. i don't know if it's meant for the soldiers or the people of iraq.
last i heard, globalization is part of the reason why we have terrorism in the first place.
one of the arab leaders (believe it was a rep of saudi arabia) said it best when he described why groups such as al-qaeda exist. he mentioned that the terrorists, and for the most part islamic extremists, are afraid of the "disney-fication" of their children and of their people. american pop culture, harmless on the surface, is the latest tool of oppression and colonization. living in america, we can barely avoid corporations, fast-food chains or commercials. people read less and get most of their info from the tv or the internet. ignorance is more rampant than sars and easier to come by. arabs don't want the wasp ideal to be broadcast into their country. and with mcdonald's going to iraq. that's just what's gonna happen.
i hope they don't eat that shit. stay away from the fries ya'll.. them shits is addicting...
SPAM vs. COMMERICIALS
with the exception of all the breast/penis-enlarging emails, and random porn email, i find it fascinating that people have such avid disdain for spam emails. (off the subject: being a spam eater myself, i take offense to the use of the word "spam" to describe junk email). isn't it funny that when we get adverstisements in our email, it's such a pain in the ass... but when it comes to TV, we are more tolerant of the commercials.
ok granted that there aren't commericals about penis enlargement every 5 mins and that commericals can be entertaining. but i think the interesting thing to point out is that we are more brainwashed to watching commercials more than junk email.
case in point: 1) when i record the dave chapelle show and watch it the next day, i sometimes forget that it's videotaped and end up watching part of the commercials instead of fast-forwarding through them. 2) when i open my email, i immediately select anything remotely similar to junk email and delete it.
i guess it's cuz we have more control over what comes in our email. it's like a personal violation to receive some of these garbage emails. when i watch tv i usually change it when the commericals come on... hmmm
ok so this is turning out to be a bad example... nevermind... haha
i guess my point is that tv is very controlling and i need to disconnect my cable already. aint' it a bitch that with all the channels we got on cable nowadays, there ain't a damn thing to watch sometimes.
Monday, April 21, 2003
had a full dose of church this weekend. decided to check out luvbug's korean church and also went to vallejo to visit my parents and go to church with them. the korean church was cool, but i had to go early to head to vallejo to meet up with the family.
that's as much church as i can handle for a while.
you see, i'm not the religious type by choice, but i do have a my own set of beliefs and i try to practice those and my own values as well. being filipino american and raised catholic, i've found that in my family (at the very least) catholicism is deeply ingrained into our everyday life.
if you don't believe in it like you used to, what can a person do? luvbug and i had an interesting conversation about religion and how each of us deal with it differently in my own family. my parents would love for me to be as religous as they are, but i am not inclined to do so.
so now comes an interesting part. with regards to catholic mass and ritual, i was questioned as to how i can accept the eucharist even though i don't fully believe in catholicism.
this question i have been pondering for the past day, lackadaiscally going through various explanations in my head. my surface reasons are to please my parents.
but this question made me ask myself; what are my deeper reasons for living as such?
for the longest time i was raised catholic and lived by that doctrine for some time now. when i went to davis, i began to question the faith, as any normal person would do and found stark contrasts and shocking facts as i put my religious beliefs right next to the information i was learning in my asian american studies classes and filipino american studies classes and all other information i was learning at the time.
in college i learned how religion was used to enslave and colonize my ancestors. back then, i was trying to resolve what i learned with what i believed in. it wasn't always easy and there were lots of bitter times but somehow i've made my way through it and keep spiritually centered in the process.
what i had to do for myself was strip down catholicism to it's core beliefs and values. there i found spirituality and a message similiar to that of almost every other religion... belief in a higher power and/or living life in a certain way towards a peace.
what hurts me to see is that every religion claims to be the "only" way to heaven or enlightenment or whatever you choose to call your after-death dinner mint experience.
another thing with me is that i'm not so inclined to get to heaven. it feels almost irrelevant to me. my goal is to just make a difference here on earth while i'm alive. if there is a heaven, then hey that's cool. i'm not doing what i do just to get there. i do it because i want to.
so i guess nowadays, religion to me is secondary to spirituality. spirituality is in sync with my ethics and my values. and my values are in sync with my family.
so when i go up there to accept the eucharist, i am not doing so just because it makes my parents happy, it's also because i share the same core beliefs as what jesus taught (which to me are similiar to that of muhammed, buddha, etc...). it's because i was raised catholic that i can accept the eucharist.
to me the message is more important than the messenger. and then more important than that is what i chose to do with that message once i leave the church and go back out into the real world.
in a sense, i don't think i'm done soul-searching with regards to religion, but at least i know i'm on some kind of path that can account for my own unique experience of life. my approach to religion isn't cookiecutter, but moreso it's open-minded.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
amazing at how a war and reality TV can really make you look at your priorities. nothing new here in the central valley. more war, more reality tv to sift through. i hear bush is eyeing syria next.
why don't u just bomb france while you're at it. u know u want to do it, pilgrim.
please. i don't know what's worse, cnn 24/7 or what's on tv nowadays. what i know for a fact to be good is the dave chapelle show.
now that's quality tv. i don't know a better comic that deals with hard ass issues such as racism and flips it so well that a person of any culture can get some kind of laugh out of it. some of it is sophmoric of course, but hey, it's definitely conscious. an added bonus are the true 2 life hip hop acts chapelle gets for his show. when was the last time u saw the gza, slum village, blackstar and even the roots on tv?
thank you mr. chapelle
Thursday, April 10, 2003
nowadays i'm in my practicum stage of the counseling program, meaning i'm actually seeing clients in a supervised site, complete with videotaping, etc.
it's kinda like beauty school for counselors.
back in the day, moms would get my haircut at kenneth's college of hairstyling in vallejo. people that were learning how to cut hair would do my shit for free. so practicum is kinda like that... people come in and get counseling for free from us students.
except not as painful...
i used to get fucked up in the beauty college. them muthafuckas would cut me and with the scissors, poke me and shit. and don't get me started on the hair.
they might as well have put a bowl on my head. it was always hell looking for someone who knew how to cut asian hair. that's why i started cutting my own hair.
anyway back 2 counseling...
so yeh, i'm in practicum and it's pretty cool. i like getting feedback from classmates and the prof. they help with giving me new techniques and insight on things i might not have picked up on. can't believe i'm already this far in the program...
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
handled business in my class today. settled the beef between the professor and i. glad we were able to squash it. the prof admitted to reacting and i tried to keep it in mind not to take his shit personally. it was just a misunderstanding and we handled it like adults
i didn't have to skip class. however, it was a nice day and a free period would have been nice. not at that price though. had to take one for the culture. it's always humbling to have to swallow your pride.
i'll chalk it up to the "take one for the team" category
Thursday, April 03, 2003
i'm pretty pleased to announce that today is me and luvbug's two year anniversary. i say it's a "hysterical" landmark because we are both hyped about making it this far. this has been the longest relationship thus far for the both of us and it's still goin!
wtf! haha
we goin out tonight!
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
borrowing the song title from luther campbell's billboard topping hit, i'd like to take this moment to talk about what happened to me in class the other day.
for those of you that don't know, i'm in the counseling program at CSU Sacramento. this is my 5th semester (i think) and i guess u can say i'm no longer a rookie at this shit.
anyway, to make a long story short, a friend and i have come across a situation with one of our professors where he (who will remain nameless) feels "attacked" and unsafe with us in class.
here's why...
a week ago the topic was violence in schools and in class that day, we were discussing the profile of a school shooter. like normal, i would ask questions that pertained to issues of diversity and race, discrimination etc...
i make it a point to critically analyze these issues in a way that is not threatening and in a way where we as a class (where i'm the only male person of color among a majority of euro american women) can discuss these issues in a safe environment. my questions are to stimulate conversations that normally wouldn't take place in our classes unless someone were to bring it up. and like most classes, i've decided to be that someone last week in my class.
so anyway, back to the school shooter... we go over the columbine, santana high cases, analyze the profile of a shooter (being bullied, penchant for electronic first person killing games (ie. doom) and heavy metal music. etc. etc. knowing that my experience is unique to most of those in the class, i asked about gangs and if there was any research on gangs. because the schools i work in have that problem and guns are often part of the problem. i'd like to be prepared for those situations as well. my professor said he didn't have anything and that we wouldn't be talking about it in class.
i think to myself, "ok... nothing new here"
we go on with class and then we watch a video. it involves the issues that surround school shooters etc. we then get to a part about the media and then professor stops the tape.
i then ask another question. this time it's about the media and how violence affects our students.
again, he says he has no material on it and would like to move on with his presentation. i feel compelled to state that i think the role of the media is important and he validates my point before going on.
at this point, a friend of mine notices that my questions have gone unanswered. he/she begins to get upset and starts muttering things under his/her breath. the prof. hears it and calls him/her on it.
then it starts to get hairy. unpleasantries are passed and then i try to diffuse the situation by trying to validate both people's perspectives, the prof and my friend. class goes on without any more disturbances. i continue to partake in class discussions.
a week later (this week) the other professor in our class (there are two) asks to speak to the both of us after class. he asks us for our side and then goes on to tell us that the other professor feels attacked and would like for us to not be in class next week.
at this point i'm in shock that he would actually say such a thing,
shock turns into silence
silence into frustration
frustration into anger
anger into yelling
i tell the other prof that i spend every waking day playin this bullshit game of being civil and open-minded to all even when i know half of these people i work with in this program would have different views than me. i try earnestly to understand their point of view so i can better express myself about what i believe in. and help them understand why it's important to talk about non-mainstream values, ethics and perspectives.
and to have this professor feel intimidated by me is ludicrous. a plea by the other prof to approach homeboy falls on deaf ears. my anger causes me to shake almost uncontrollably. he tells me to think about it.
thus i write this blog. and now, i formulate a plan on what to do. what would u do in this situation? drop me a comment. at one point i was at a loss for what to do next. now i see my path is a little clearer.
all i know is that i will be in class, and that i need to squash this shit. the only thing is, do i continue to play big man? voodoo child explains it's not about bowing down, but it's about setting this man straight about who i am.
i totally agree. however i am also a man of principle. and my principles tell me not to do a damn thing.
reality of course will be the deciding factor. in this bullshit mayonaisse jar us raisins live in, we must play the game from within to establish true change in the institutions. the question is, do i fight fire with fire, or turn the other cheek?
how bout if i turn the other cheek as i light the guy on fire... ok i guess that wouldn't do good either.
there has to be some kind of solution out there. and all i know is that i want this man to know how this affected me. he needs to know this, above everything else.
i can go on forever about this. being the analytical person i am, i have the capacity to beat this to death, but the solution is pretty simple.
it's just not easy.
the only thing i know for sure is that i will not stop challenging my professors and classmates. this is grad school. this is what we're supposed to be doing. this only makes me realize that i am making a difference if i'm raising this much hell to get banned from a classroom for a day.
i can't stop now, who will take over?
