Politically Correct

Over this past week, I have seen a great debate. The fact remains, though, that this topic is a process of being "politically correct." In our society, we are now being taught to embrace other cultures in an ideal of universalism. We call our winter break the holidays because it would be "wrong" to call it a Christmas break. In the process of this debate, something has been lost. -what does it mean to be politically correct during the holiday season? What has been sacrifaced in the name of the "greater good?"

I was talking to someone from another school about taking pictures with santa during the lunches. The response was that, at "my school, we have to be totally politically correct. Santa isn't allowed in our school." This is a prime and simple example- the consequences- of being politically correct. Our nation has shoved our fun and joyous spirit away in the name of "equality." However, when is the notion of equality brought so far that we lose many things that we hold dear in the process? For now, I hear people saying "happy holidays" whenever they start to say "merry Christmas." It is so comical to be so stiff about topics such as this. Lawsuits fill the air instead of the merriment that we normally associate with Christmas. Perhaps, in the future, then, we can make being politically correct should be a part-time job only, and perhaps we will make everyone happy someday, somehow.

Just think, for once. . .

It is hard to tell what other people are thinking. It is even harder to think about what people may be thinking of you. Finally, it is hardest to think that those people will all assume that thought that others may be thinking of about you. Confusing? Don’t worry, it’s just rhetoric. In plain speak, I ask: Why do we behave in a certain way, based on what we think other people think of us? This idea is just as absurd as the first couple sentences of this paragraph. It is sad that our world is just as absurd as I described, for ALL OF US do the aforementioned. We act in a certain way to attempt to please others, we dress to impress, and pretend we are something we're not. Doesn't all this sound familiar? Well, these are trite and overdone statements, and quite frankly, I hate clichéd statements, but there is a word of advice in it for us. If we are to not be trite and clichéd, then we too have to stop doing all these and just think for ourselves. Try it sometime. You just might like the feeling of being yourself, regardless of what you think others may think.

Cranium hurts my cranium

I played Cranium again some days ago. . . however, I seem to not enjoy it all the time. The reason is I don't seem to know a lot of the questions and things that it makes you do. Sometimes, I am saddened by my lack of knowledge in pop culture and trivia. I mean, I don't know half the songs that wants me to sing! I remember awhile ago I had some friends over. . . and they all beat me and my partner horribly. It was a pitiful sight to see how far we had progressed on the board. Disappointing, to say at least. Finally, is there such a thing as a cranium? Is it like some part of your brain? Well, I think I will go find out then, and increase my knowledge of random information.

Our White Christmas is here!

I will celebrate my white Christmas with questions between each line of the verses to "White Christmas." Sorry if your white Christmas experience is shakened after this.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
[First off, if he or she is dreaming, then, how is it possible to tell us about the dream?]
Just like the ones I used to know
[Which ones were that? 1985, 1986, or 2003?]
Where the treetops glisten, and children listen
[I suppose this is what he or she remembers from past Christmas]
To hear sleigh bells in the snow
[If they're in the snow, how can you hear them? Wouldn't the snow drown out the sound?]
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
[I suppose I would too, if it weren't white outside already]
With every Christmas card I write
[I wrote a bunch, but I don't think I would have a recurring daydream every time I sign my name.]
May your days be merry and bright
[Christmas card quotes stuck in my head during the daydreaming.]
And may all your Christmases be white
[Thank you, and God bless.]

Ethnography experience

I came back from my ethnography site today. We learned a lot of info from all this, including the nature of emergency doctors, and all this has made me stop to think.
The name of my primary character is Joshua White. Josh (as he likes to be calledd) is very inquisitive, respected, and welcoming. He tries to help us with our project, but doesn't always understand what we are doing.
The nurses' station is where we hang out. This is where everyone is at when they aren't treating patients. Although everyone takes their work seriously, as evident in the technical conversations exhanged, the people also seem to like to have fun. On the ceiling, there are icicles and snowflakes hanging from paper clips. Next to the secretary desk, there is a mini Christmas tree. The nurses sit around and chat with each other, and I continue to stand there, listening to them. I seem to be close to being accepting into the culture.

The Music of the Night

The Music of the Night is a song from the "Phantom of the Opera," which will come out in like a couple days now. I am pondering how it will turn out, for it will not be exactly like the play, nor the book, either. It is interesting to see how one idea or story can be interpreted in so many ways. Many people do not know, but, besides from the 1980s broadway play, there are about 3 or 4 movies that have been made about it, and the story orginated from a French journalist named Gaston Geroux in the early 1900s. Something like it, anyways. Well, I did read the book, you see, and I have seen the broadway play, and I have seen an old version of the movie, so quite frankly, I don't know what to expect from this upcoming adaption of the play. I will be pondering about the music this night, and how it will sound coming from theater amplifiers.

The best present ever

I think the best present I have ever gotten is a recollection of events strewn from collected from many other places. I think it is in the joy of opening my presents and in the joy of seeing the face of the person who gave it to me light up that I dervive my the best present that I have received. Human emotion is very subjective. However, in all the differences of taste that may appeal to someone, happiness is still a common-shared experience that we all long for in our travails. Therefore, the best present that I have recieved has been a that of recollection of experiencing happiness in myself and in others.
A gift is a thought that has been concieved into physical form. It has assembled itself from the generosity contained within the mind. Gifts takes flight and aim to appease other people's minds into a mode of gratitude and contentment. We seek these experiences to nourish our own emotions. When others are happy, we are happy. When we are happy, others are happy.

Which way to our destination?

Today I went down the wrong way. Quite literally, that is. I was driving down the opposite direction of where I was supposed to have gone- and the thing is, I did it twice.
I was sitting in the back of Ashley’s car, and we were driving towards the bowling alley. The only thing wrong with the scenario was that we didn't know where the bowling alley was. . . So we ended up going past the bowling alley by a bit.
When we left, we were certain that the way to get home was by turning left. However, as we kept going, we saw the cow.

Actually, we didn't really see any cow, but what we saw was an endless streak of highway all the way down the horizon. After about going for 5 minutes down the wrong way, we realized that something was wrong, because no one recognized the landscape. It was a good thing, then, that I decided to tell Ashley to turn around.

And so we turned around, and lived happily ever after. The End.

Or is it? Fine, so life goes on. And this blog was written. And in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. So one day I went bowling and got lost. Oh well.

Santa pictures

Today was a depressing day. It was a day of realized failure, a day of unsought confidence, and a day of remorse. This was all due to the disappointment of my crappy photo take with Santa. I faced the wrath of my own anger and misery.
It started as any other day would have. I went to orchestra, and then to economics. I found myself sitting in calculus before half the day was done. It seemed to be like any other day, and there was nothing to what had happened since. There was nothing to the day. . . so therefore, as I was walking down to lunch, I remembered that Dana was Santa today. The next thing, it seems, Dana is talking to me, and the photographer is telling me of the misfortunes they had had . “We haven‘t had any customers yet. Maybe you can be our first one today,” he said as he scratched his head in awe.
“Take a picture with us,” shouted Ms. Clause, who was also in my calc class. What happened next was undistinguished and unremembered. It seemed like a tragedy from the start. I ended up walking away with a Polaroid picture.
Thereafter, I went to eat my lunch. As I sat down, I realized the loaded potential of the picture. It was a masterpiece of laughter. Everyone eventually laughed at it, including myself. Soon afterward, I found myself leaving the lunchroom, heading once again to calculus. As I reached the ramp that connected the cafeteria to the rest of the school, I stopped to think about retaking it; however, I realized I was late for class, so I walked on. Little did I know, this would be my last chance to resolve my failed opportunity.
The true failure of the day was in that little moment when I stopped to look back. In my mind, the Santa workers were completely un-condescending, and I was taking a another picture. In reality, I started was walking subsequently down the wrong way. Instead of gaining momentum towards redemption, I went down the ramp of dejection. The consequence of this day: my perfectly normal day was now a perfectly troubled day, and I keep this day to heart. The only opportunity cost of not trying was a lost of two dollars, and a load of resentment.

Academia

One day in the world of Academia, the people called for change. They were sick of doing this and that.

"One day in the world of Academia, the people called for change. People in the world of academics will rebel against the set measures and standards that are currently set, such as MLA formatting. "

This was the occurance of masterfully played luck, and the persistance of one man. This guy, you see, was writing his master's thesis on the idea of abolishing or changing the formatting of papers. He argued that the formatting had become as big of a deal as the writing content itself, and that many were obcessed with this factor.

And so the people rallied across college campuses everywhere. They stood in big grooves and sang, "we will prevail."

illogical persuasive paper of logical fallacies

Warning: This is an illogical persuasive paper filled with the agony of a thousand illogical fallacies about the fallacies of this paper. Therefore, in being an illogical persuasive paper, this means that the author of this blog is stupid, dumb, and should get legal advice to sue the comments on this blog for libel.

Because this blog has been written with spontaneous planning and random thoughts, tomorrow will not be a rainy day. Therefore, it will be a snowy day.

This paper has been written to persuade the reader that it is an illogical fallacy-filled paper. It has been designed to puzzle you and question the validity of this blog. I apologize if you have read through this, but congratulations for living through it.

What's for dinner? And the moral of the Asian-Cajun mystery

This is just for fun. Don't take offense to the bad adaption. Sing along: On the second day of this week in December my parents gave to me, some pork chops in a pear tree. (Sorry, I couldn't make it work)

I had some pork chops for dinner along with rice and green beans. The pork chops were charboiled, and had a cajun-like flavor to them. Actually, it was more like an Asian-cajun. The spices seem to bite you. It is not possible to describe Asian-cajun, for it seems to have unique traits that allow it a distinctive flavor while resembling other things that are completely different, like some Southern cajun powder.

What makes something Asian? What allows something to have a flavor from the Orient? Is it the exotic factor, or the associations that we have made since we were little? Too many random questions, no time to think about them. Maybe if you get a craving for Asian-cajun one day, mix some cajun spicing with soy sauce, or otherwise just ask my dad. Good luck with that.

The one in the upper left-hand corner

The one in the upper left-hand corner is giving me a look,
staring into my eyes to read me like a book
Am I sleeping or weeping about the about the food I couldn't cook
No matter, the one in the upper left-hand corner cannot tell.

He sits in the upper left-hand corner, examining me like a piece of art
I smiling, or frowning, he will never know
or does my mouth look like a hook?

This one in the upper left-hand corner, just who can it be
sitting in the corner, staring at me
Perhaps it is just my conscience, looking down with glee
What am I thinking, you still cannot tell, so keep on looking, then
make up your own mind about what I am thinking about.

College

It is nearing winter break, and many people are scrambling to complete one important task- applying to college. There is a feeling in the back of my mind that keeps biting at me to complete the job. Like me, many people choose to send their resumes to many colleges, and eventually, this all becomes a logistical nightmare. It becomes a very bad nightmare, indeed. People are scrambling to finish their applications. They ask themselves, "Is this essay any good? Are they ever going to accept me because I have a million reasons why they shouldn't accept me? Are they really what they describe their colleges to be like? Why should I believe anyone, including myself?" At this point, the person is probably burned out, or close to it, and then what happens next- procrastination. "I feel burned out, so I'll just wait until tomorrow to fill out my app." The next day, you tell yourself, "I'm tired, so I'll look into this later."
Therefore, the consequence of procrastination is a perpetual process of applying to colleges. How about you just go ahead and finish them? Think about it. That's what I'll do right now.

Favorite Places

"Hi, can I have some of my favorite places to go?" I discreetly asked.

"Sure. Just don't drop Poland over the Altantic Ocean," He said.

"Actually, I dont want to visit Poland," I replied, swinting my eyes at the order.

"Oh. . . ok then. I got you mixed up with the guy down the street. Sorry," He said, and dissapeared.

So I looked at my recepit. Thank you for visiting the World's market. Enjoy the vacation of thought, and see you there!

"Hmm. Peculiar," I thought aloud.

1.Northfield, Minnesota. 2.Duluth, Minnesota. 3. Metrodome 4. Orchestra Hall . . .

"Hey," He said, "why are they all in Minnesota, anyways? Don't you want to go farther away to someplace exotic?"

"I don't know. I suppose I'll find out sometime in the future where I want to go."

To be continued at some other time in some other place. . .

A timepiece for all of time

When the world has been burnt in ashes, and all of Earth has been annihilated, what remains as a tribute to human civilization and our late planet would be an ordinary timepiece, a clock.
It would be a quartz-driven clock- a compromise between the gear driven clocks of our current- day past and the digital clock that rules our current-day future. This quartz clock would be more than a treatise towards human civilization- the quartz would be a representation of the vast resources that planet earth had contained. The quartz trapped in a human device would show the ingenuity that humanity had in being able to harvest the powers and the resources of our planet. It would also show what would be the last of its kind- a piece of rock that exists no where as in abundance as on earth. The world that humanity lived on was a one of a kind plane of existence. It was there that we had our memories, our wars, our triumphs, our deaths, and our destruction. The world that remains is nothing but a memory of the past.

The Grass is Always Greener

"In the beginning, there was nothing, not even the water." This was the first line that caught my eye, being the first line in the book.
When a person initially opens a book, there has already been a pre-determined opinion of the book- an innate bias towards the book. Therefore, when I first opened a particluar book named Green Grass, Running Water, I was also initially biaed. I did not know what to expect and did not expect much; it resembled a collection of thoughts instead of any type of standard prose.
As with anything that people do, we learn as we go on. Therefore, as the book progressed, I found myself being profoundly challenged. This book exceeded every boundary that I ever thought it would become. My initial bias totally dissapeared.
This book is a fictional story with native american overtones. What makes this book so unique is that the analogies and comparisons bleed into all realms of our society. There are allusions to Christianity. There are issues of culture conflict, and culture division. The book attacks all of our society; it is certainly a satire.
This book has impacted me by bringing to awareness certain overtones that I never noticed before; I began to notice the little things that others different from me would do.
I understand what Thomas King wanted to do when he wrote this book: he wanted it to be controversial. In my opinion, he succeeded beyond any initial biases that people may have had of him and his book.

Napoleon Bonaparte

If I was fortunate enough to be able to dine with Napoleon Bonaparte, I would ask him the most important question in this world: Why did he do it?. To me, Napoleon is a shining example of the prowess of humankind. He had experience, he had innovation, he had skill, and he had all the things that you needed to consider a person great in our civilization. However, although Napoleon I was a man of extraordinary stature, his shortcoming was that he could never see farther than the horizon. The French Emperor did not know how to extend his greatness to the betterment a common ideal. He did not use his influence to attempt paradise on earth. Instead, he chose an alternative path, a world of conflict and death. As he looked over the curvature of the world, he still could not see the error in the choices he had made. He could only see the battlefield and the curvature of the sword, and so it was in the end on the battlefield that he eventually lost. Had Napoleon had greater foresight, he would have been remembered as an even better man- had he accomplished more for mankind.
The conversation would start out with a simple call and receive. Qui? Why? He would look at me puzzled and muse over the question of whether I could speak French or not. And then, as I sit there staring at him with the sadness and spark of anger in my eyes, he would understand. Napoleon, in all his glory, would finally "get it." He had fought his wars in vain, in a human effort that weighed miserably in an attempt to "veni, vedi, vichi" all. All he wanted was some power, he muffled.

Culture clash

Get ready for a sociological analysis. This will resemble an ethnography, in a sense (this could be interesting.)

Today I went with my parents to a birthday party for someone's kid that they knew. The birthday boy was only five, so most of the people were adults. It was quite an interesting experience in the sense that the people there were really different from me. They were Vietnamese. Although I Robot was showing downstairs and there were two blond headed people at the party, there was definitely a aura of distinctiveness that night. For the most part, this was not an American" celebration, but an "Asian" celebration.
At the party, the people were nice. They were quite amused at me, especially, for not knowing the language nor the customs. Although I am Vietnamese, and I do speak it a little, I remain illiterate both in culture and in reading/writing.
The people there were mostly engrossed in their tasks, whether eating, watching the movie, or just talking. The chit chat was mostly in Vietnamese, and the food was definitely Vietnamese. I can't understand the music that is playing in the background. Sometimes I question being raised in a dual culture setting. Apparently, I do not really always appreciate my Vietnamese culture association, especially when I do not even totally understand the language. I remember reading in a newspaper for Korean-Americans once about the concept of "cultural assimilation." The concept explains that the dominant culture will usually override the second culture of persons that are raised in multi-cultural environments. I suppose, then, that it is kind of a good thing that I am engaged in two cultures, even though it may be that I do not always prefer my other heritage.

Now that I'm 18, these cliches will not bother me anymore

Now that I'm 18, I have a list of what I want to/ should do in the future: (complete with cliches) These are not engraved in stone.

1. I should get a job and take some weight off my parents' shoulders of paying for college
2. I should think about getting a girlfriend, but I don't want to end up as star-crossed lovers
3. I should send in my draft registration card to be able to serve my country with pride and dignity
4. I want to get a nice navy blue blazer with gold buttons to be as classy as a cat
5. I don't want to be stuck between a rock and a hard place finanically
6. I want to make doing homework as easy as pie
7. I want to plant the seeds of a comforting life
8. I will put my best foot foreward
9. I will be careful around gossip to not dig a hole for myself
10. I will rock the boat and feel the need to succeed
11. Procrastination is as good as dead (soon I hope)