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Monday, June 28, 2004
RESCUE 9|11 posted on 6/28/2004 01:21:42 PM by agentCB
FISH posted on 6/22/2004 03:17:57 PM by agentCB
LAST FRIDAY posted on 6/15/2004 02:28:09 PM by agentCB
MAX VALUE PACK posted on 6/10/2004 05:40:48 PM by agentCB
MEMORIAL posted on 6/01/2004 12:04:45 AM by agentCB
time to vent. been holding this one back a while. pardon the floral language in this blog but i dont give a fuck. anyway, there's a lot of bullshit and hype surrounding this movie.
here's my buck-fiddy:
1. watch the movie.
if anything, please think and feel what's goin on during/after/before (not exactly in that order) in yourself and the others around you. basically...
2. wake the fuck up.
and no i'm not talkin to the 8 of you that read this site. i'm talking to the rest of the sleepyhead fuckers out there on the "we are the world/voices that care" bandwagon. the people that think america is this great place that never does anything wrong.
i agree with the first part. this is a great country if you are looking for freedom, flush toilets and sexy supermodels. where else can i talk shit about the system and not get caned, executed, burned at the stake or beheaded?(canada here i come) other than that, we're a bunch of lost, colonized, numbnut consumers that are scared shitless by our own media 24/7. have we hit our golden age yet? hell no. because we're oppressed by the same ideal that makes this nation "great"; capitalism.
now put your pitchforks and angry mobs away for a minute, you macarthy wannabes. let me explain.
capitalism - education = oppression
(and i haven't even gotten to talkin about culture yet.)
corporations and government have realized that if we keep the people dumb*, then we can keep taking their money forever and ever, amen. this is the only explanation i see for the onslaught of marketing and consumerism that plagues our society. in defense of the marketing heads, this form of oppression is a vicous cycle of stupidty->buying->stupidity->buying so it's not all the marketing heads fault. we the people are dumb* on our own as well.
1) i believe MTV started it with giving the people a "voice" and in turn, dictating that "voice" right back at them and change it in their favor. check out "merchants of cool" documentary on pbs to get more of a taste of what i'm talking about.
2) another factor is the deregulation of media. this allowed gi-normus companies like viacom and clear channel to form, gobbling up every radio station, tv station, billboard and stadium near you.
3) now lets add to the mix that ever since i can remember, the focus in education has been on test results and NOT if students actually fuckin' learned anything. hence, students become marginalized and schools try to become "efficient." teachers get paid less, and are forced to teach towards standardized tests that don't really prove anything besides the fact that you can take a test really good.
ain't that a bitch.
and why did schools go through all these changes? were we not in an economic surplus for a hot second? was it because the government spends too much on prisons? defense? military? 24k screwdrivers? (shout out to the pentagon).
maybe.
but i think it was because of pressure from corporations who lobbied for their shit first and foremost. or fuck it, better yet, let the business people run the country. (chaney-halliburton, clinton-whitewater). maybe that's why schools started to look more like businesses; efficent, lean teaching machines....
...that don't teach students jack shit about the real world.
my last point brings me back to michael moore's documentary. we are held hostage by constant bullshit our own media feeds us. and in turn, the media is held hostage to fickle, channel surfin' ADHD-diagnosin' no imagination havin', mainstream assimlimatin', culture-deprived public.
and this public will believe anything you tell it. and buy anything you make it think it needs to buy. (all you fuckers that bought water and spam prior to new years eve 1999 raise your stupid ignorant hands, jk put them down. i love spam and water)
michael moore's documentary is not a fair and balanced look at our government and the events that surround 9-11 and the war in iraq, rather it is the other side of sensationalism that the "clear channels" and "viacoms" don't want you to see. why not? because they're in on this whole "get money" scheme as well.
michael moore blasted the turd out of bush in this movie. fuck just play the clips you had by themselves mr. moore, they are as condmening by themselves than with your commentary etc.
what really moved me was seeing the soldiers in iraq and the familes of the soldiers back home. of course i may be only seeing the soldiers that didn't want to be in iraq. i didn't hear from the ones that disagreed with michael moore's movie (because he probably recorded over them.) but to see and hear the real people involved in this conflict is choice journalism in my opinion. of course i prefer to see the opinions of a plethora of soldiers. not just a few. i will talk to the ones i meet in the future and ask them how they felt about it.
overall, this movie made me proud to be american, because i have the freedom to watch a movie that decimates and exposes the exact same system that is showing me the movie in the first place.
gotta love the irony.
i have the freedom to watch propoganda and not get killed outside the theater by angry mobs who would burn my body and drag my carcass through the streets of sacramento beating my charred flesh with a bat.
if this movie can play to a large market and get people to watch it. then all is not lost. thanks to all of you sleepyheads out there that watched the movie. i don't care if you don't agree with me or not, just glad you're still using your brain.
now go ahead and go back to your daily starbucks, target, enhanced lives. i know i will.
[*dumb=ignorant]
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
last week, i took a few days off to chill with the family. it was hopefully the first of many small vacations i am to take this summer.
and believe me i need them.
so we shot out to monterey for a few days to check out the aquarium. is it bad that after viewing all the lovely specimens that i had a severe craving for fish?
either way, i ate fish that day and continued the trend with clam chowder, calamari etc. to top it off, i had a salmon club sandwich at spenger's grotto in berkeley for father's day.
i have lots to write about, but no energy to do so right now.
someday... i'm too busy living life right now!
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
we balled and bbq'ed again at the gravel pit. it's starting to look like a lovely tradition. i must say that there is a definite homecourt advantage when it comes to my rim. the rim loved me that day. well actually, i've been practicing my jumpers as well.
we had one casualty. chantizzle sprained his ankle and i gave him the coveted "flesh tone" (read: color of a white dude's leg) mr. left ankle brace.
we've been through a lot together, that brace and i.
along with mr. dislocated thumb cast, and mr back brace. now that i think about it, let's list all my past basketball injuries for the ksb readers enjoyment...
agentCB's past baskteball related injuries
(gravel pit era only)
1. sprained right ankle:
landed on jaybee's foot in a pickup game.
2. sprained left ankle:
tweaked this ankle after a rebound, reinjuring this ankle from a previous non basketball related injury
3. dislocated thumb:
tried to block and inbounds bullet pass. hand came up, thumb went down... in the wrong direction.
4. various sprained/jammed fingers:
we like to hack at the gravel pit.
5. sprained lower back:
tried to block a game winning shot. my back did not like that. couldn't stand up straight the rest of the night.
6. bruised retina: got hit in the eye by the ball. (i was looking away like a dumb ass b4 a game) blood vessel burst in my retina causing a black spot to appear in my eye for a good few days after
7. plantar fascitis: ball of my foot felt pain every time i stepped. repetitive stress injury.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
I was at a training today and we were asked to do an exercise where you go through a bunch of cards with different values printed on each one. We had to categorize each value into 1 of 5 categories: “most important, important, sometimes important, not really important and not important at all”
I think there were at least 200 little cards. Hella.
Then we had to narrow it down to the top 6. so basically choosing 6 from the “most important category.
That was pretty hard.
Here’s what I came up with… (in no apparent order, or so I think…)
Honesty
Being able to trust someone else, being real, with myself and others. It’s important 2 me because it’s the foundation of trust.
Learning and Growing
Being flexible, open-minded and accepting the fact that sometimes, things are out of our hands. I value this because I’m big on self-improvement. It also makes for a more fun life, especially in a relationship.
Taking Care of Myself
Making sure I get to be myself and get what I need in the midst of life and the ever increasing speed of it.
Having a Close Family
Even though family can be a stressor at times, I’m very close with my family and realize that it’s something I need in life, or at least hope to have for my own family
Being a Member of a Family
It was a toss up between this value and “inner peace” in some ways, being a member of a family does create inner peace for me. The sense of belonging is the underlying issue here.
Being Emotionally Strong
Being the sensitive bastard that I am, being emotionally strong is important to combat life’s BS that comes up, or more importantly, the BS I create or allow to affect me. Resiliency is key for me. Basically it helps me balance the drama, the happiness, the ups and down, stress, etc.
Overall, I guess the main thing I realized about myself was that family is very important. It was somewhat surprising, given how much stress surrounds my concept of family life. It was also hard to pick these six values, there were at least ten that I considered highly important, not counting the other 20 that I considered “most important.”
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
first and foremost, shout out to all the soldiers, officers who lost their lives in iraq and afghanistan this past few years. although i am strictly against the war, i am not against the efforts of the people that have to go out there and do the dirty work of our fat and lazy leaders.
so to all the families that lost loved ones in the war, my heartfelt condolences and respect for you and yours.
america is a great place because i can call my leaders fat and lazy and not worry about getting killed. at the same time america is also a place that needs to learn alot still. in all fairness, it's not just america, it's also the other oppressive countries that are part of the g8 or how many superpowers that are out there nowadays.
as an american, it's my responsibility to speak my mind. especially if i dont agree on stuff. i think the ideals this country were founded on are being abused and manipulated to serve the interests and agendas of the rich and elite. some may argue that things have to be the way they are because without this order there would be chaos. in some instances i can see that to be partially true. then again it's not like we ever tried.
what i dont agree with is the lack of efforts to change the system. and i dont just mean by the activists stirring shit up. im talking total systemic change. government and all. ethically speaking we are not that great of a country.
*aside: capitalism goes hand in hand with greed. more on that some other day*
to know that this war boils down to money and power saddens me, part of it is a way of life that is so ingrained in our society that it's almost impossible 2 back out and try something new.
now with the media in on the whole bs. our ppl will forever be asleep in the matrix. being told to be afraid, because we're gonna get killed if we dont be careful. just make sure you keep buying shit to make our country great.
happy memorial day.
