Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Hardest Thing...

Drama, it's definitely something I'm familiar with. Some people call drama a beef between people, where words are exchanged and things are not alright with them anymore. Others would say its all in their body language, it can tell it all. Actions often speak louder than words. It makes me wonder what's worst? A person who tells you straight up that he has a problem with you, or the one that acts like there's nothing wrong and then just goes on with their lives? I've come to the conclusion and the incredible answer is: It Depends...

Not to just throw everything I've said out the door or anything but i guess you could say that it all depends on how close you are with the person. If you feel that you could live without that person, you let them go. If it's meant to be that you guys become friends again, then it is. Sometimes it's a lot harder for a person to let go than others, but for the most part, i guess it'd better to not dwell on meaningless fights, smacktalking and all that jazz.

Socially retarded people have it good i think because they get thrown out of the boat when it comes to fixing problems. "O, well he's just socially retarded so there's not much you can expect from him." Well, what about me? I don't really feel socially retarded but of course i have my problems. It just brings me back to my other notion of the hardest thing for people to do when dealing with other people. It's horribly hard for people to step out of their shoes and relate with people. It's not an easy thing, so don't think i'm saying i can do it and you can't, because i don't feel like i need help in that department too. But it makes me sick to think about people who assume they know where a person is coming from, when they don't. Get over it, you're never gonna be that person, no book, no picture, no nothing is gonna make you be entirely sympathetic for a person unless you went through that experience with them, i myself am incredibly happy to have great friends that have gone through a lot with me, surprisingly to me and most, it's mainly my guy friends that have been through the thick and thin with me. I think it's just because girls are easier to judge and say something when they shouldn't than guys, that's not a bad thing cuz that just shows guys are socially more retarded than girls as a whole, but like i said before, i'm gonna have to think socially retarded people have it better. Well, that's my 10 mins of writing haha... Ciao! (i heard a person at starbucks say it and i thought it was cool)

Thursday, October 16, 2008

CLASS: Barack Obama Journals

This is the same as the first but this time with the ever so popular Barack Obama. O btw, this book is called Dreams of my Father, McCains book is called faith of my fathers. Both are good books, i would definitely recommend it to you guys.

Barack Obama scares me. It doesn’t have to do with anything that I know about him. I guess it has to do with what I don’t know about him. He puts out a good message about giving back to the neighborhood and is the face of a nation of youth it seems like. All the actors, singers, writers, everyone that is practically surrounded by media supports him. I guess what disgusts me the most is that anyone that wants good graces from people happens to put on an Obama shirt and then all of a sudden, everyone seems to like him. I don’t want to sound racist, but I feel like people assume that just because a person is African American, that all the rules are going to change on how people play in the politics. I definitely think that I’m a little bias because I hate it when people talk about how good or bad a person is even though they have almost no clue about them.

What I expect from the book is kind of what I read from the McCain book. I think it’ll start by talking about his parents and go into his life, good and bad. The structure from what I hear in class is that he tells it in many quotes. Which as I think when I start to read is going to bother me because in the back of my mind I’m going to be thinking this book might be more polished than it really should be?

After reading Origins, I had no clue that Barack was half-African American and half- Caucasian. He being born in Hawaii and moving all over the pacific was also interesting to find out. In my head when I first thought about Barack I often pictured him coming from a pretty well off family. My anthropology teacher said he was related to him because he was from Kenya, so I assumed his parents were born and raised in Kenya. I guess that was only half true. I guess his experiences are a lot different from most candidates and I think that’s why a lot more people feel like they can relate to him.

The book is definitely well written. I feel like every chapter has its own little moral at the end and always seems to project what values that Barack stands for. Like many books that I’ve read about racism and people being mistreated, it has a familiarity to it that I can’t seem to put my foot on. I think the book would be more engaging if I had a better grasp on the places that he goes. The book jumps around quite a bit, and I don’t feel like I know what the setting is besides maybe school, island, or country.

About two-thirds into this book and it happens to be clear that Barack wants to change the community from the ground up. My opinion of him as a person is still that he is a good person. I doubt the book is going to talk about his goals of the future, so by looking at the way he is writing I can tell that he looks towards the future. Even though in the news and in the media I rarely see him portray himself as being African American I feel that in this book, he really emphasizes the fact that he not nothing other.

The book brings a lot of truths that are said between races. Being Asian myself, there are rules and things that we just do and do not even know why. The book shows that many people in the neighborhood rarely want to speak up for themselves, but when given the chance would like to be heard. I think the book shows readers that if you get enough people together, you can make a difference. Many readers probably take for granted parks and recreational centers, but by reading the book I can see how hard it is just to even get certain things done when the wrong people are in power.


I think my opinion of Barack has changed after finishing this book. I think if I had to choose between McCain and Obama, the smarter decision would be Obama just because he looks towards the future and that depends on building a solid foundation for today’s youth. I still don’t really trust politicians because it seems like you have to have a really cold heart to make certain decisions and you can’t make everyone happy. I feel like I can be contempt with anyone who wins this election because both are good men, and both have equal values that they put more of an emphasis on. Reading on both of them did not really change my opinions of them as politicians, but it did change my opinion about them as people.

The book was well organized in the sense that they wrote about exactly how that part of Barack affected him. If there was any bias in the book about him, I would like to still think it’s the fact that there is so much dialogue that it makes a person wonder if Barack has excellent memory or he just sugar coated a lot of the chapters with what might have been said. It is also interesting to think that he never really talked too much about his mother, I feel that she was left out a lot in the book and even though he rarely saw her, I think he thought about her more often than not. Johnnie, his assistant came out of nowhere, most of the other characters you could kind of connect with. But Johnnie I just didn’t really know what to think.

CLASS: John McCain Journals...

Well, hello again, sorry i have been away so long but i had to write journals for my book and it seemed a lot easier just writing them on word and fixing it rather than putting it on here everytime i had a chance to read. The format goes from what my initial thought of his was, then to what i think about the book. It repeats until i do it 4 times.

As I watched the Olympics, there were often times when we would take commercial breaks and view campaign ads mudslinging Barrack Obama. I found out that it was a supported message by John McCain. I always find that when the opponent attacks the bad traits of a presidential hopeful that it is almost their desperation move because they do not have enough good qualities in themselves and their campaign to just focus on their own propositions. I do not have a strong opinion about the election’s this year because I feel that people should be educated on who they vote for before they do. With all the elections coming along and being that I live in San Francisco there is a lot of pressure in voting for Obama. I don’t think I should be pressured because a lot of people seem to just vote for Obama because he would be the next black president. Everyone is jumping on the Obama band wagon where I feel that it’s just ridiculous. So even though this journal was a lot about Obama, my exposure is really slim because it’s been overshadowed by overzealous people that “want change”.

The first thing I thought when I saw this book was that I wanted to know if that person in the front of the cover was really John McCain. It sort of looked like him but this McCain was not old and balding, this McCain was big and strong looking. I expect this book to be very opinionated in its writing. I see this going on pages about how he was brought up and what things he did to help the United States. I don’t think they’ll be talking about too many of the mistakes that he’s made as well. I guess we’re going to have to see.

When I first read this book, I had no clue who John McCain really was. I knew he was a republican nominee and that he won by a substantial amount. I always wondered why he was so overly favored compared to his other fellow candidates. After reading the first couple of chapters, I can see that tradition and honor is a strong moral for him and that it seems to run in his blood. Everyone loves a war hero, and I guess that’s why people like him are chosen for running as president. I feel like the more I know about a person it’s harder to be more critical because after knowing what certain things they had to go through in life you can’t help but to just be ok with their flaws.

The book so far has only been talking about his parents and grandparents. I did not expect this to happen when I first saw the book. By family memoir I always imagined him talking about himself for his future kids. It is actually a pretty fast read, and I think that all comes down to the fact that there is actually a lot of action going on in this book. Talks about submarine battles, great leadership, what more can a person ask for. I’m glad that the narrative in is more in 1st person than 3rd person because if this book were told in 3rd the entire time and they were just talking about people in history, it would be a painful book to read.

Now that I am half way into this book, it is interesting that John McCain would tell us personal things about his life as a kid. Things like he was always a rebel and never wanted to have a life that seemed so predestined. I guess he acted a lot like most teenagers at that age, having too much pride for their own good. I think there are two ironic things that stick out to me most about John McCain. The first, which he always talked in a way that he always wanted to do things his way, but ends up doing exactly what his parents self-consciously wanted him to do. Second, was that he always thought his life would be determined by the great battle he was a part of, and instead he ends up becoming a prisoner of war.

Halfway through the book and I can’t seem to put it down. Either I’m secretly a McCain supporter or this book isn’t half bad. I often find great books, stories, and movies, blend together great times of laughter and seriousness. This book seems to have that comic relief every so often when I find myself engulfed in all the facts and things that they would do in their life.

After reading this book, I feel like my opinion about John McCain has permanently changed. It is not to say that I am going to vote for the guy, but I do believe that I have a better grasp of where he might be coming from when he talks about taking care of the veterans. This just makes me think about the presidential race and there are so many people that talk so much smack about John McCain when they do not even know his half of the story. It just goes to show how many people will just be a part of the herd just to fit in. It makes me sick inside to know there are people out there that key other people’s cars because they support John McCain in San Francisco.

I tend to enjoy the books I have finished and this one is not any different. The second half of the book about him inside a POW camp and getting tortured semi-reminded me of One Flew Out the Coo coo’s Nest and Castaway, more so the first than the latter. It was very interesting how the people that treated John McCain poorly during his life were portrayed. He did not just stop at what they did for him, but he went through what their mind frame seemed to be like. If someone were to ask me if I’d recommend this book, I would definitely recommend to anyone with an open mind and is ok with all the ridicule they get from people for reading this book.