Hollywood Racism

I've been complaining a lot lately, outside of the blogosphere, about the ridiculous racism that pervades Hollywood. My biggest complaint has been the treatment of Asian actors and actresses. It's disgusting.

As one example, take 21. The movie starring Jim Sturgess as math whiz kid and Kevin Spacey as the evil professor. There was one Asian actor in the movie, when the entire cast should have been Asian. Hollywood completely white-washed the cast in order to "appeal to a wider audience." Why can't Asians appeal to a wider audience? The same reason why we have such adjective phrases as "Black Directors" and "Black Cinema." Anything outside of a white writer and director is shoved off into its own genre, not taken as seriously as real (white) cinema.

Take as another example, Forbidden Kingdom. It had two large Asian stars, Jet Li and Jackie Chan. You would think they could sell a movie on their own, but Hollywood didn't think so. The real star of the movie was a white kid and Chan and Li were only his helpers on his quest. Seriously?

And the latest in this disgusting trend is DragonBall Evolution. Every character is Asian, except Goku. Goku, the main character, the one everybody associates with DragonBall is played by another white kid!

Now, this is in no way meant to hate on the actors, or their skin pigment. I just find it absurd that Hollywood will hire a white person when it would be more coherent to hire an Asian (or another minority) because we won't go see a movie with a minority starring unless they have a white person in it too.

This is seen much less with black actors, but note that the biggest black stars either started in "black movies" (Taye Diggs) or were playing second fiddle to a white star (Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, etc). The only black actor I can think of that didn't have this problem was Will Smith. His first starring role was in an all-black cast.

Also, note that with Asians, even when they are starring in a movie, they're partnered with someone. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lee Evans, and Owen Wilson. Jet Li and Aaliyah, DMX, Morgan Freeman, and Jason Statham. Also note that basically the only movies they've been in without a partner are the ones they made through Hong Kong. Fearless, Hero, and Once Upon a Time in China are the movies most known by Jet Li where he is the main star, but those are all Chinese. The same with Jackie Chan. One may think that Rumble in the Bronx was a Hollywood movie, but it was not.

Back in Action!

My computer is back!

They replaced my mother board and my fan, so now I should be able to use my computer without problems!

Shenanigans

I love technology.

Not really.

My computer has been acting up for months, and this past spring break I finally decided that I wasn't going to take it anymore. I didn't have any of my warranty info with me while I was on break and I didn't want my computer to have to be shipped back to me by my parents, further delaying my separation, so I waited until I got back to the good old Waco to take it in to be fixed.

I got into Waco, and not wanting to deal with HP customer service, I decided to take it into Best Buy. Best Buy told me that I had to pay a fee to get it sent in. Me being the poor broke sap I usually am, I decided that any fee was not worth the money (I also found out later that I only had $12 in my account). I said, "Screw this, I'll take it in to Restech."


Restech is the crappy Baylor version of Geek Squad. And by crappy, I mean that for every problem the fix, they create a new one. Most of the time their problems are just massively annoying. Needless to say, I've never taken my computer in to them. Also, I can troubleshoot my own computer thank you.


My plan was set, but then the Cahnz told me that my computer would languish there for weeks before it got back to me, and well, I just can't let that happen. Ok, ok. I'll just give in and pay the fee for Best Buy.

(The simple solution, for the layman, would be to deal with HP. Simple layman, you've never dealt with their customer service.)

So back to Best Buy I went. I went to Geek Squad, ready to fork over tons of money for them to deal with it, but lo and behold, there were two workers, only one of which was working, and the person in front of me apparently had a computer with a grand mal seizure because it was taking forever!

At this point, I was angry and desperate. You know what that means.


I called HP. Spoke to three different people, one of which just told me he was sending me a box, and used Geek Squad's tools to troubleshoot the hardware. Now, my computer is off getting fixed in who knows where.

Extra Tidbit: I received a letter today from Princeton Review saying exactly this: "LSAT: Supremacy Starts Now"

Scary? Yes.

New Mexico!

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!


New Mexico just signed into law a bill that repeals the death penalty in that state. Bill Richardson, although believing that the death penalty is an acceptable form of punishment, said that he signed the bill because of the recent numbers of inmates being cleared because of DNA evidence influenced him that.

This is an addition to the 14 states that don't offer the death penalty and a handful of other states considering abolishing the death penalty. Thank goodness for progressives!

This reminds me of my trip to the state capitol (Austin, TX) to lobby for comprehensive sex education. I was coming out of a representative's office with my lobby group when we ran into some other lobbyists. those other lobbyists were actually lobbying for abolishing the death penalty in Texas. TEXAS!

Now that's commitment.

And You Thought There Was No Such Thing as Karma

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/16/don-imus-i-have-prostate_n_175203.html

How Uncomfortable

If you haven't seen the Jon Stewart interview with Jim Cramer, please watch it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/12/jim-cramer-on-daily-show-_n_174503.html

There's a link at the bottom to watch the entire, uncensored interview.

So, if you haven't heard, at all,about Cramer vs. Stewart, where the heck have you been?

John Stewart filmed a piece for his show in which he completely destroyed CNBC's credibility. Seriously, it was a work of genius. The next day, Cramer, who works for CNBC, got mad at Stewart for taking something he said out of context. The next day, Stewart killed Cramer. So, the obvious conclusion of this was a face-to-face confrontation. And boy was it awkward.

I swear to god, it sounded like Cramer was on the verge of crying most of the interview. That, of course, may just be the way he talks, but jesus. I think that Cramer was at a disadvantage though. First, he was on Jon Stewart's court. Second, I'm pretty sure he thought Stewart was going to lob some softballs at him and get some laughs in. I guess he forgot that Jon Stewart actually got a show canceled a couple years ago.

But seriously, if you haven't watched the video, or other Stewart vs. Cramer videos, go do that now!

I Find Myself Worrying

So, I just did an outline of my schedule next semester, and I discovered some interesting things.

Next semester I will be taking 4 Political Science classes, one Philosophy course, one Human Performance (PE) class, and Colloquium. That's a total of 18 hours. I could cut back on a Political Science course, but that's still 15 hours.

After that, I'll only need 30 odd credits. This includes my Philosophy degree requirements, my Political Science degree requirements, and my BA requirements. Now, 30 hours could easily be completed in two semesters. This means that, not only could I graduate early, I might HAVE to graduate early.

This scares me. It really does. If I have to graduate early, what am I to do for the six months I'm not in school? I have to get a job. Could I get an internship? Where? My dad can get me one at the VA, but that's unpaid. Where will I get money? I don't want to work an internship and another job. That's too much stress. Where can I find an internship for a couple months that's paid and will accept me? I could volunteer. I could put in effort to start a grass roots campaign of some sort. I can bum around in Waco on someone's couch (I'm looking at you Cahnz). I could go to Austin, get a job there.

Will I get to walk across the stage with everyone else? I want to wear that awesome African garb as I walk, will I get to do that?

If I'm so worried about graduating early, why don't I just not take summer school. That would seem to be the correct solution. But it unnecessarily complcates my schedule. I could take extra classes. Electives if you will. But if I get a bad grade in those classes, I take down my GPA just because I didn't want to graduate early.

Ugh, looks like I'm having another talk with my folks.

When You Find Yourself With an Open Book Test

So, I have a midterm tomorrow. And I just haven't gotten around to studying until an hour ago. My test is in roughly...12 hours. Unfortunately, I haven't read a lot of the chapters, but I took great notes. Thankfully, it's open book.

Here's the plan:

1. Underline the chapters that I need to know so I can look them up during the test.
2. Read my notes.
3. Write my notes in the margins of the book.
4. Read the Study Questions. (Shouldn't this be 1st on the list?)
5. Take the test.


That sounds like a fool-proof plan to me.

In other news, Watchmen is coming out tomorrow night at 12 for a midnight showing. Guess who's attending?!

Excited does not begin to describe my mood.