Zombies!

I have an amazing affinity for zombie movies, especially those of George A. Romero. I'm not sure exactly why I find them so enjoyable, maybe it's because of the guilty pleasure I get from watching massive carnage and chaos. Maybe it's because zombies are the only scary things in the world nowadays. But maybe, just maybe, I love these movies so much because they show man in the state of nature. All society has fallen into anarchy, chaos. Man finds himself with a small group, cut off from others, with little news coming in about the outside world, their friends, their family. They must find in themselves the will and the power to survive.

It's interesting how zombie movies play out. The movies are always chock full of philosophical and moral questions. When does death occur? When a person turns into a zombie, are they no longer themselves? Knowing that at death a person turns into a zombie, if your friend is bitten and death is imminent, when do you blow their head off before or after they turn into a zombie? Though these questions seem ridiculous, they have an interesting undertone. What makes a person who they are? When does self-preservation take precedence over the humanity of another person. What is humanity in the first place?

I guess that is really why I love zombie movies. They show people struggling with these questions in crises with actual stake in the answers, not just theoretical.

On that note, I recently found out that Night of the Living Dead, the first movie in the living dead series by Romero, has lapsed into public domain. This means it can be LEGALLY download and shared since there is no copyright on it. Amazing, no? How crazy is that? Unfortunately for Mr. Romero, he only owns the copyrights to one of his original 4 Dead movies (Dawn of the Dead is owned by him. It also happens to be my favorite). But lucky for me, I can obtain his movie for free.

California Fails Again!

Living the High Life

I moved into my apartment on Saturday. After about 6 hours, some rain and a lot of sweat, all my furniture made it into the apartment. Amazingly, I only spent $650 on stuff for the apartment. And that was all bed stuff (the rails, the headboard, the mattress, the linens). Everything else I either already had or it was donated to me. Among the donations were a dresser, a bookcase, dishes, silverware, pots, pans, a knife set, a cutting board, a rolling chair, a rice cooker, and a ladle. And that's how apartment living should be; an amalgamation of old and new, with a special emphasis on the old (read: free).

After spending a night in the apartment, I drove down to my grandmother's house, where I am currently writing from. My auntie (not really my aunt, just my grandma's good friend) was visiting here which was a pleasant surprise. I love seeing her. When I lived in Washington, she lived right behind my grandmother, so we would always go over to her house for food and to play cards. I learned to play 500 and Up and Down the River from her and my grandmother. She's always full of interesting advice, and she gave me a recipe for potatoes this time. My grandma, for her part, taught me how to make kimchee and bulgogi; two excellent Korean dishes. Apparently I now also know how to make kalbi, since it's the exact same as making bulgogi, just with different meat.

So, now I'm pretty self-sufficient. I can make those three dishes, rice, grilled ham and cheese, burgers, and macaroni. That's enough for a whole week! I'm going to start collecting recipes so I can make more and more things. My goal is to be able to have friends over and be able to cook something nice for them. Right now I'm a one-trick pony, but soon I'll be a multiple-trick horse. Oh yeah.

My grandma apparently never learned to cook in Korea. When she got to America, and when she got married, she was only able to cook burgers and Chef Boyardee. Her recipe for kimchee is apparently the concoction of her own imagination. I think that's pretty awesome. She started learning how to cook because of her taste buds. She would eat something, like it, then ask how it was made. That seems to be what I'm doing now with her. It's interesting how people are similar without even realizing it.

In other news, my life (read: college) plans seem to be in flux once again. My auntie wondered if I was going to study abroad at all. When I thought about it, I realized that since I was going to graduate a semester early, I could easily just stay in school and use my last semester to do just that. So now I must decide if I want to do that, or get an internship somewhere in the states. Guess which one I'm leaning towards.

Animal Planet's Planet Earth has been playing in the background for hours. I muted the TV for some reason about 5 hours ago, and so every once in a while I'll realize that it's still on. It's odd realizing the same thing over and over. It used to happen to me in my poli sci class this past semester. The clock in there had a broken second hand. So every time I looked at the clock, I would repeatedly be weirded out that the second hand wasn't moving. I'm so observant.

I'm going back to Waco a little after I wake up. I want to go back soon, but then again I want to put it off. I just don't like driving two freaking hours. Even if the end of that trip is my apartment. My roommate put up two pictures of ducks and there's a whole bunch of fake plants lying around. Him and his family have no decorating style. Honestly. Maybe I've been around my mother too long (trust me, I have) but all this crap just makes our place look cheap and redneck. I think I'll casually mention to anyone who comes into the apartment that the decorations are not mine and that I had no say in the aesthetics of the living room. I like to absolve myself of catastrophes, lest anyone implicate me in their happenings.

Oh well, I'll try and talk some sense into the maniac who allowed his parents to put that horrendous mess in our shared space. Until then, I'm asleep. Goodnight!

Insomnia

The last post's title was a reference to the DJ mix series "Late Night Tales." Many different people have had their own Late Night Tales including Jamiroquai, Belle and Sebastian, and Fatboy Slim. I had two of the albums previously, but I never really listened to them before. It's strange, really. Most people would do this as a remix album, but nope. These are all originals, just some mixing done. They're basically the mixtapes we all make, except they're done by famous people. How odd.

It makes me want to make the ultimate mixtape. I had an idea for a mixtape, where it would be made up of songs that sampled the actual lines from a song and when the that part of the sampling song hit, I would mix it with the original and let the original play after that, then mix it into another song and repeat. I just wish I knew the correct software to use to do crap like that.

Does a mixtape tell you anything about the person who made it? I guess it tells you what type of music they like but I wonder if it tells you anything beyond that. We all know/have made/have received those mixtapes that express the feelings of tenderness, but even beyond that. I know that when I make mixes, I like to keep a certain theme throughout. It makes finding songs that mix into each other easier. Might it tell someone the certain mood I was in when I made it? I shall attempt to read into the mixtapes I hear from now on.

In other news, it was Malcolm X's birthday (it was also my friend Kirk's birthday, how silly). I got my brother the Autobiography of Malcolm X last week and he's been reading it a lot. I'm slowly molding him into a smaller version of me. Soon he'll be out canvassing the neighborhood with petitions and lobbying and rallying. A lovely vision to behold.

Speaking of convassing the neighborhood, I've been reading Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Real Radicals" lately, and I must say, and interesting read. Written the year before his death, this book is Alinsky's attempt to impart the knowledge gained over decades of community organizing to youngsters trying to get in the same game. The book feels like a bare skeleton of what could actually be divulged. For example, Alinsky states that one must be fear and hated by the machine (my word of course, by which I mean the establishment, or the "Haves" to quote the man himself). He goes on to say that when he was organizing his first group, he acted in ways to make the newspaper revile at him and the establishment to condemn him. This all worked in his favor because the "Have Nots" reacted by inviting him in and respecting him as someone who could get things done. At this juncture, Alinsky believes his point made, but what were the exact methods he used? How are we to mimic his results? He gives no answers.

His second chapter is highly flawed in my opinion, as he states quite clearly in this chapter that ends justify almost any means. I disagree wholeheartedly. He says that the Haves and the Have Nots work on two different moral pillars, and are therefore found to be just in their own eyes. I think that this is completely wrong and both parties should be held to certain moral principles. I mean by this that what morals one party believes the other party should be held accountable to, that party must also follow.

But other than that, it's interesting. I wish there was a bit more instruction.

I got a call from Texas Freedom Network's Youth Leadership Council. I was apparently the first person they called for the phone interviews. I think it went well, and I'm hoping they'll give me a position. It'll be nice to get a bit of money coming in. All that's required is tabling once a month, putting on an event once a semester, and blogging once a week. I blog once a week as it is already so I'm set. Also, apparently I'm going to be called once a month and there's another conference call with all the members monthly, but that shouldn't be a problem. And a free trip to DC! Color me excited.

I'm not sure what book I'll start when I'm finished with Rules for Radicals. Maybe Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Yeah, I'm thinking that one. Too much non-fiction for me, need some fiction. Love it.

Summer is coming to a close soon. But I'm moving into my apartment soon and I'm super excited. House Warming party? Yeah? Yeah!

Late Night Tales

I'm so serious on this blog. Hardly anything about me personally. It's always a short announcement about crap I'm doing, or it's all about politics. So ranty I am. So, with that, I'll give you something about myself.

I love music. Too much in fact. I have a lot of it. But somehow, in my memory banks, I have locked away the sounds of thousands of songs. It's weird. I don't usually memorize words, but if I've heard the song enough times, I can remember the lyrics years later.

Take The College Dropout by Kanye West for example. I used to listen to that album ALL the time. I would come home from school and I would pop that CD in my stereo and blast it until someone came home and demanded I turn that "god-awful racket" down. Now, during my junior year, I moved on, started listening to more music on my computer and basically ignoring Kanye West. I had his second album, and it was much better than the first. And besides, there are so many better rappers anyways. So, it wasn't until my second semester as a college student when I picked up poor Mr. West's first album and put it in my car CD player. After having never listened to it in nearly 2 years, I was rapping along to that dang record! I knew every word!

Many people may have this same ability, but I do enjoy thatsong lyrics are always running through my head. If someone says something that's the start of a lyric, I always finish it, usually out loud.

Another thing about my "talent" is that I memorize song beats as well. If I hear a beat on the radio or in a commercial, as long as I've heard it before, I can usually tell you the song title and artist. What's really fun about that is when you listen to as much old school soul music and as much rap as me, you'll notice a little overlap in the beats. We all know that hip hop's back bone is sampling, and it gives me a chance to have some fun. When I hear an old soul song, and it sparks up a memory of another song, I'll always try and remember what song sampled it, and vice versa. Sometimes it's very small, like The intro to "Just Like A Baby" by Sly and the Family Stone is sampled in "She Don't Have to Know" by John Legend, for all of 5 seconds, and a small snippet of the ending whistle in "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding is sampled in "Eye Know" by De La Soul. Some are wholesale ripped off like "Move on Up" was stolen for Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" and Gil Scott Heron's song "Home is Where the Hate is" was stolen for Kanye West's "My Way Home."

I love doing this, it's one of my favorite things to do. It's a nice way to keep my memory going.

Alrighty then. That's all about me for now. Later, a rant.

Gentrification

The last post had some links to other blog posts about gentrification. Gentrification is the moving-in of more "affluent people" into an "low-class area." This raises the income of the neighborhood which increases the property values and rent. Since this area was originally low-class, the increasing rent forces the original inhabitants to move out because they can no longer afford to stay there.

With the movement of affluent people into this area, the area itself is changed. Businesses move in, while mom and pop businesses shut down. It's actually a fairly horrible thing. As I've heard from some of the posts, those who move in are not concerned with the original inhabitants. They are more concerned with their cafes with wireless internet than meeting their neighbors. They seem also to only care about their property value, which of course rises with the influx of more of their kind.

My neighborhood is experiencing what can only be described as a reverse gentrification. There is currently a plan to create a townhouse complex near here which would be for low-income families. This would drop the property values of my neighborhood. There is a campaign to stop their construction headed up by the Home Owner's Association. I oppose this campaign, and support the building of this low-income housing. There's no reason why it should be opposed. Simply because a greedy home owner wants to keep his property values up? Why should we forsake the affordable housing and great education of the less fortunate to protect the greed of people who probably have too much anyway?

Race, Media, and America

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, and it kills me to see how many examples of covert racism we have in our media, and how easily people look over it every day. I'll link a couple different articles and say something short at the end.

Feministing has an article here about Beyonce getting airbrushed basically white, and here about Freida Pinto (star of Slumdog Millionaire) being airbrushed lighter as well.

Racialicious has an post about the white-washing of the Avatar the Last Airbender live-action movie. You may remember that I discussed white-washing in Hollywood earlier. Angry Asian Man has some posts on it as well.

Racialicious (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites) has another post on The Princess and the Frog. I like this one a lot because it covers a lot of points people bring up about criticisms about the movie.

Here's feministing discussing gentrification (not exactly about racism, but still an interesting read on the politics and ethics of it). Another one here by racialicious.

Here's one on removing minorities from the idea of the "average American" in polls. It's from Sociological Images.

This one comes from Sociological Images as well, and it's mind-boggling. It's about the Muslim threat that the world finds it self facing. I'm not sure what the take away from this video is. Should we all be having more children?

Besides the gentrification pieces, all of these posts are on the the intersection of race and the media. All of the posts are on issues found in far-reaching modes of communication. The internet, newspapers and news programs, magazines, freaking Disney!

Disney, with a reputation of racism, should be highest on the list of people to complain about, but when complaints are voiced, those complaints are silenced by people saying that blacks are just being ungrateful or too sensitive. Whagt other princess has been changed into an animal for most of the dang movie? How many other mixed-race prince and princess couples have there been, and why are they just starting now with the black princess. It's the same thing with Hitch. They would not cast a black woman as the lead because the studio didn't want it to be a "black movie."

Complaints are being silenced when they are thrown at Avatar as well by saying that roles shouldn't be based on race alone. The fact is that Asians have been cut from parts so often that it doesn't seem to be possible that the studios will let an Asian lead character can carry a film on his own. They must be relegated to side-kick or co-star. Finally, Asian Americans had not only one hero, but multiple heroes to identify with, and Nickelodeon has snatched that away by white-washing the cast.

We are daily bombarded with images and writings that are absurdly racially insensitive or even borderlining on overt racism. We cannot sit back and just accept these images as the way the world is. They may be how the world is today, but if there is nothing done, it will be the way the world is tomorrow as well.

Back Home

I got home two days ago. It's so nice not having to worry about school and just living for myself. Too bad that ends in about a week. Oh well.

So, when I came home, I found a for sale sign in our yard. Apparently we're moving to Missouri City, about 20 minutes away from our current location. How lame(ish). You would think that after retiring, my family would be over the whole moving thing. Apparently not.

Hmm, not much else to say. New York is on its way to passing laws respecting marriage rights. I'm working on events for Coalition for Diversity. I'm probably going to go swimming in a bit.

Hasta luego!

Wanda Sykes!

Wanda Sykes is amazing. I think she's one of the funniest comedians out there currently, man or woman. Recently she was at the White House Correspondence Dinner giving the usual comedy routine and she killed it. There will be nothing that ever touches Stephen Colbert's routine at the same dinner a few years ago, but she still did amazingly. There were some very, very, very hard-hitting jokes such as the one about Rush Limbaugh, "I think he was the 20th hijacker, he was just too strung-out on Oxycontin and missed his flight," and one about Sarah Palin, "Sarah Palin isn't here tonight. She pulled out at the last moment. Somebody should tell her that's not how practicing abstinence works!" but overall she had the crowd going. If you listen carefully, you can here the Fox News table jeering and booing at a couple of the jokes, but the reaction was mainly positive.

Dinner videos:





Wanda Sykes on the word 'Gay':



Wanda Sykes on Gay Marriage:
Greatest argument against those who oppose marriage rights




Obama at the White House Correspondence Dinner:




And OF COURSE! Stephen Colbert absolutely destroying Bush:

Great News!

It always makes me excited to post about things like this!

Maine has legalized gay marriage! And Washington DC now recognizes gay marriages performed elsewhere! It's at times like these when I wish I had the technological know-how to make an interactive map!

So, let's list them

Maine
Vermont
Iowa
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Washington DC

So that's 5 states and the capital! We've got a tenth of the nation! Let's keep it rolling!

I propose we stop calling it gay marriage. Blacks didn't call their rights black rights. They called them civil rights, as in they pertain to everyone in the nation. So I will be henceforth calling "gay marriage" victories marriage victories. Or referring to states as recognizing marriage rights.

Doing Good

So, an idea just popped in my head. I'm wearing TOMS shoes. A girl I know was recently wearing TOMS shoes. It's interesting how truly lazy we are and how we like to show off our good deeds.

As most people know, TOMS shoes gives a pair of shoes to poor children (I believe in Africa) for every pair of shoes you buy. I got mine for free at Clinton Global Initiative. They gave every person in attendance a pair. There are TOMS parties where you put designs on the shoes and everything.

I have nothing against the people who make TOMS. By all means, they're doing a great service. I have something against the people who buy TOMS and think they're making a difference. In actuality, they're just buying a commodity, and it just so happens that they're helping someone at the same time. People buy TOMS shoes thinking they're helping a poor child and do nothing after that. It's interesting that people are most interested in helping someone out when they get something in return.

The perfect example is from when I worked at a grocery store. We used to hold drives and would ask the person buying their items if they wanted to donate a dollar to Breat Cancer or Colon Cancer, things along those lines. People right and left would deny us (especially the people who bought hundreds of dollars worth of groceries, like an extra dollar would break their budgets). Because we weren't getting a lot of money, we started giving incentives to give money. We would give away slices of cake, some bottles of water, anything. We saw a dramatic rise in donations when there was some type of reward involved.

Very few people volunteer. A lot of high schoolers volunteer, but most of them volunteer to look good on their college applications, not to actually help another. My roommate is going on a medical mission trip. I think he's going to pad his resume for medical school. It's sickening. It takes all of the humanity out of humanitarian aid. Although, yes, they are helping a small bit, they should be helping for the sake of other people, not themselves.

I am volunteering next year at Planned Parenthood. I'm not doing it for the resume building, I'm not doing it to get service hours for some organization. I'm doing it because I want to help people who actually need help. I want to do Teach for America not because it looks good on a law school application, but because I've grown up privileged enough to go to good schools but I know the horrors of inner city public schools. I want to first give back to a system that gave me my education, and second give the children who didn't have the opportunities that I had a chance to receive them.

In high school, I didn't volunteer at all. First I was lazy. Second, I didn't want to be like all the other people volunteering with no heart, just for the gold star by their name. But really, they were better than me. Although they weren't in the right place, they were at least out there. They were getting something done. They might have put in the required 100 hours and been gone, but that was a 100 more hours than I helped.

So this post had two points. First, I wish that people would donate, time or money. Both are small sacrifices made for the benefit of those less fortunate. Second, even if you're volunteering for all the wrong reasons, I have to give you props for being out there. It's actually wonderful to see people helping out, for whatever reason. I just think it's better when your heart is in the right place.

Oh man Oh Man

I have spent the entire day doing things other than studying. I need to study. It's imperative. Oh well, I'll get it done now.

Your moment of zen

An End

TO the ridiculous assumption that there's no reason for atheists to be moral. In fact, the question itself ignores literally THOUSANDS of years of philosophical thought. And really, if we're discussing ethics and morality, it's automatically a philosophical question.

Anyways, here's just a small list of moral philosophers and their ideas on morals without God


Aristotle - believes that reason was how you realized virtue. Reason for being virtuous is happiness (i.e. being virtuous will give you the truly happy life). Happiness is the reason for people to be moral.

Aquinas (theologian) - has the same conception of virtue that Aristotle has, except he applies it to the city of man. He also has a conception of virtues with God. But even then, the virtues of the man without god lead to temporal happiness and greater justice among men.

Kant - did not have a conception of God in his moral philosophy. All morals came a priori, discovered by reason. This was an entirely secular moral philosophy. The reason to subject yourself to this moral law is to fully acknowledge your freedom. To not put yourself under this law is to be nothing more than an animal.


Actually, it's more reasonable for the man with a personal God to be immoral than it is for the atheist. For a Christian, God absolves man of his sins, so why not be immoral now and be absolved later?

For the atheist (or anyone with no conception of an afterlife) morality is much more important because they only have one chance at this life, and morality allows for the best cohesion with their fellow man.

Anyways, if anyone gets hit with this question, I suggest this response.

"Nichomachean Ethics ftw! Now GTFO!"

Man, I'm Bad at Updating

I've been swamped lately, so here's an update until I have something real to say.

I've discovered a lot of "new" blogs in the past couple days. I put new in quotes because they're fairly established and I just happened to stumble upon them.

Blogs:
Feministe
Raciewire
Sociological Images (quite awesome)
Texts From Last Night


There's another feminist site I frequent called Feministing. I like it much better than feministe, because it updates more and it has a lot of different posters. But feministe is good too. Texts from last night are mostly drunk texts, some ridiculous booty call texts, and the occasional drug text. It's really funny. Racewire and Sociological Images are along the same topic, one dissects pictures while the other just discusses topics of race.

In an update from the last post, I did get External Vice President of ASA, which means I am not only an officer in every organization I am in, I am also on the executive board of every organization I am in. I'm going to have to start going to more organization meeting, just to stay visible for Coalition for Diversity.


Coalition is going to be awesome. I am happy with our board of officers. The vice president is really helpful and really committed to this. The girl who was also in the running for the vice president is now one half of the PR chair, and I think she will do great there. The Cahnz is the treasurer which is good because she had some great ideas for fundraisers with ASA so hopefully she can bring that over to us. I'm excited.

I have been listening to a lot of music I listened to when I was younger (14-15) and it has taken on somewhat of a new meaning for me. I thought I understood them back in the day, but I still find new things in every song. If you read The Moviegoer, there is a ritual the main character does where he does something very similar or identical to something he did in the past to try and eliminate the time that happened between the two happenings. I feel like I get how that works, but then again, not really. Oh well.

I've been talking to Morgan a lot about language and stuff like that, and she really makes me excited to learn a new language. After talking with her, I really want to buckle down and actually learn Spanish. I have to study really hard for my final coming up anyways, so it will be easy to start figuring out the conjugations. After I get all those down, I will have a basic grasp of the language. I just won't have a good pool of vocabulary. Morgan speaks French almost perfectly, and sometimes we have small conversations where she speaks in French and I speak in Spanish. It's actually really fun.

Class is over. Dead days extend until this Tuesday. My first exams are on Wednesday. Next Monday is my last exam. I don't think I will be leaving until the 13th since I wanna go to this social night a friend is putting on. The after that, it will only be 2 weeks until I move into my apartment. That will be awesome. I cannot wait.

Hasta luego!