Thanksgiving thoughts... Part 2

Well, now that i don't have work so early i guess i can really say what i was thankful for.

I try to be thankful for everything i have and never become a little brat that complains about his life or the things he doesn't have. For example, the next time i EVER hear my self say "i wish i had a new car, or a new job, or a new life" i will allow anyone to slap me in the face. Just remind me why you just slapped me in the face. But any who, I'm thankful for my friends and the life that i have been given because of the fact that it seems that everything in my life goes not always according to plan, but it never goes disastrously wrong. Where is the family portion of me being thankful you ask? Ah, well, as much as i want to think it. I'm not much of a family person. I cringe at the thought of walking through the doors of a family party waiting for me behind the contemporary door of my house on Homestead. The only 3 people i am thankful for in my family of 9 (which includes myself and my parents) is my brother James, who is someone i almost try to emulate in every way in personality. He is a person that is always smart about things, never looking above anyone and even though his pride sometimes gets in the way of his judgments, he never steps out of line when it comes to being disrespectful. I'm thankful for the fact that he always welcomes me at his house when i come home for the weekend when i do. I'm thankful for all the advice he gives me knowing that it isn't hard for me and he might not always sympathize about the things i'm going through but he does empathize. I'm also thankful for my parents who have never pressured me to do anything but my best at what i enjoy doing. They were never those kind of parents who told me i had to be a doctor, lawyer, or anything to do with engineering. Though they were never for me there emotionally, they were just there. And that made the whole difference.

Well that was my part 2 of thanksgiving thoughts. Hope the other 2 people who ACTUALLY read this have had a happy thanksgiving. Til next time. Later!

Thanksgiving...thoughts...

Well, here we are with the thanksgiving festivities over and i feel like a complete fatty but i still want some steak, probably because i'm watching the world steak cooking challenge on the food network. I think it was a quite enjoyable break, except for the fact that my sleeping schedule is now thrown into whack. I don't really seem to remember what i did the first couple of days of break besides just hang out and sleep in, play a lot of video games and watch TV.

Hanging out with friends and playing football over the thanksgiving weekend would have to be the highlights and i think i did well in football. I am really glad my bro did not disappoint me when he came with me to play football. I tend to brag about him a little too much and when he played extremely well, i couldn't be happier.

I honestly think people who want to change can. But then there are those people who just never seem to change even though people have told them what they really need to work with themselves and then they slap you in the face by just showing you how hard it is for people to change. I'm a person who doesn't hold a grudge for very long, but sometimes I really just want to tell some people off.

Well, that's my thought of the day. I would have more to say but i have work at 415 in the morning tomorrow so i'll just continue with what i have to say tomorrow. LATER!

Pre-Thanksgiving Break

I would have to say that hitting someone, catching balls, throwing touchdowns and making plays has to be the best thing you can do without taking off your clothes. I might be exaggerating a little, I know. Sometimes I think I get a little too hot headed to be playing a sport in which you tackle your own friends. This weekend I played football both Saturday and Sunday, about 4 hours each. The first day was fun because i haven't played in a really long time, and the second day was a also an equal amount of fun but with cramps and after effects of playing tackle football the day before.

So here i am, laying on my bed in my brother's room with enough muscle movement to use my fingers, and that still kinda hurts just because my left wrist got pounded on the floor today. I spend most of my time at my brother's house when I'm in Santa Clara, and this week i and basically here all week because i have no class or work. It kind of worked out that way luckily. I have no idea what i really want to do now that i am here, but one thing is for sure, i didn't want to just be sitting at home by myself just playing games all day. So i guess i'll try to do something with my life and maybe replace some things in my car, go to the gym, and cook dinner for my bro and sis. Hopefully my sauce won't turn out so liquidy this time.

Well, i guess Obama won haha. I think this is a good decision just because what he wants to improve in our country, Mccain probably would have just been another Bush in my opinion. Of course, a better guy nonetheless, but just politics wise. Prop 8 passed, kinda depressing, everyone in SF was pretty bummed, well most people. It was such a surprise to me really, all i could see was signs on No on Prop 8 and none what so ever for Yes. I guess living in SF blinds me from ignorant people outside the city, but i think eventually it will be changed, hopefully sooner than later.

Forgive my random thoughts, i have ADD when it comes to blogging and i never stay on one topic. Its already November and the holidays is just around the bend! I love the holidays, everyone is so much nicer. I hate the holidays because i always have to put up a fake smile for the demon-incarnate of a sister. O well, C'est la Vie. We'll that's all for now, Peace!

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)

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.

Michele, My Belle

So here i am, 850am sitting inside the school library. Which to my discomfort, is insanely humid for some strange reason. It might be because i just walked about 20 minutes from home in weather that was about 60 degrees and the second i walked into the library it was about 15 degrees warmer. I guess that's physics for you.

Yesterday I went out with my friend Michele, who is also new to the city and we went to my favorite burger place in San Francisco. Of course, I've only been to 1 gourmet burger place in SF but it was recommended by everyone that I knew it SF so it couldn't be too bad right? Being that i work and i tend to have other obligations, I guess I kind of blew off being a friend to her. I hang out at her house at least 3-4 times a week now but i seem hang out with her roommate Jill more. Whether that's because Jill and I have the same schedule or that we're in the same field of study, I guess after hanging out with Michele a little more yesterday, I felt bad that we kind of lost what we used to have in being friends. When Jill comes back from visiting her BF we'll probably hang out again, but next time, I should probably realize that I'm not the only new one here in the city, and that other people, like my friend Michele, could use a friend too.

So here I sit in this library, a little more comfortable than about 20 minutes ago, but starting to get annoyed by the constant buzzing sound that this library's heater or electricity or something makes. The only reason i guess i hear this noise is i can't seem to write when i have music in my head, I end up just talking about the first thing i hear, I guess in someways that's alright for a blog, but it makes me feel like I'm being brainwashed into talking about something that I'm listening to. It's like subliminal messages! Anywho, i guess I'm going to put on my earphones again and bid you adieu.

Rambles

You never know what you've got 'til it's gone...

It's something that I've been told many times over. It's not like its a really hard sentence to understand. People often take things for granted and then when they lose it they want it back. I know plenty of people like that in my life. I myself am one of those people. One time in High School I wanted a transformer toy because as old as a guy gets, when he sees an Optimus Prime that can transform into 4 different things, you've gotta have it. So i ended up buying it and played with it for about a month. After that it went back into the box and is probably still sitting where I left it at my folks place. Anyways, now that I think about it, it's not even about what i didn't have at that time, but if i didn't get it i probably would have just moved on and said you can't have them all. So now comes the question of whether or not I should get a ps3. Sure it plays Blue-Ray and i would probably get Madden which is a game that i pretty much played for hours without even taking breaks, but i guess I'm gonna have to wait a while before i can get it because being a starving college student a person has to conserve. Not something that I'm particularly savvy at. C'est la vie.

Everyone, ok MOST people around my age (which happens to be 20) are just waiting for that one more year to just grow up and drink your life away. I don't think i have a problem with drinking but when it comes to drinking with friends, I can go a little overboard. Another thing that often comes with growing older, is more responsibility. Some get it earlier in age than some folk, about around this time, I want to know how i got all these bills to pay. I have cable, internet, rent, credit card, gym, and others. This just reminds me of my essay that I just wrote for my english class talking about how we as teenagers and young adults tend to run through the cycles of our life and before we know it we're already in that 9-5 job and wonder what the heck they did with their life. So from time to time I'm going to TRY to take a little time for myself, whether that is 10 mins to write this blog or even 30 mins just to sit and stare at the ceiling of my room.

The weirdest part about writing that essay was how much I miss the simplicity that comes with my life before. Even when it comes to hanging out with my friends. We used to just sit play board games, some video games with pretty bad graphics. I got some new friends, now we tend to drink and party a lot more now, which isn't so bad but last weekend i just played some cards with a friend of mine and i think i laughed and had more fun with that than i ever really did drinking with my friends. Things have changed, but that's ok.

Toilet Seats and Beyond

http://www.speech.sri.com/people/anand/toiletseat/index.html

I am at my friend's house to teach her and her roommate how to play poker. After a couple drinks and toffee nut chocolates, i needed to use the restroom. I walk in a i find that there are a lot of fuzzy thing's from the floor to the toilet cover. They even had matching soap for their color coordinated restroom. But that wasn't really the thing that bothered me. It was the thought after that really started making me think. It seems that every girl wants you to put down the toilet seat after you do you business. I know its common courtesy to do that, but who really made up that rule? I forgot to really ask what my friend's thought about that but after looking up reason's why a person "should" put down the toilet seat, I found the top 2 reasons seem to be: 1. Girls might fall into it. 2. That it would make the radius of the spray from the toilet to be minimized.

And so I look at these reasons, and I laugh. To think that maybe a girl would be in such a hurry to use the restroom, that she didn't notice that the seat was down, and also, what things other than toilet paper, and possibly magazines are around this so called "germ radius" do you really mess around with. The writer in the link on the top said that it would be fairer if the male would just lift the seat, while the woman would put the seat down. To be honest, i wonder why this topic hasn't been raised sooner? He also said that the main reason why girls nag about the seat so much is that is would just be so much more convenient if men just did all the work when using the toilet.

To defend the girls, I guess guys are the only reason the toilet seat was made because we like to stand up and use it, because i guess we can. This topic only got me to think about the other things that some guys do for other girls that we have been almost programed to do. For instance, I tend to be somewhat of an old-fashioned type. Maybe, it's the alpha male in me, but I try to open doors for every girl that walks into a car that i'm driving, and by all i mean ALL, from my mom to my friends, and anything in between. Does it make me feel better as a guy? I don't really know because the only reason i started doing it was because of my brother, who would do it all the time. I guess you could say i have a brother complex, but then again who else am i going to look up to if its not someone i respect? Anyways, it just seems like i would be having a double standard if i asked my female friends to put down the seat themselves when i myself open doors for others when it is not even necessary. Life is strange in some cases like that, but a guy can always wonder right?

First Blog/Work

Well, this is my first blog, well i guess Xanga worked as a blog, but i guess that was still very childish. I reread some of my old blogs, and they just sound extremely depressing, or as all the cool kids say it, "emo". For those that are my friends, welcome! For those reading for class or the actual teacher, you too are welcome. I guess what is really going on in the little mind of mine now a days would be my work. For those that don't know, I work at Starbucks. It is a very enjoyable job where most employees are nice, customers are manageable and some are actually fun to talk to. The only thing that gets me flustered would be the fact that people that work together seem to get along for a minute then the next thing you know it, they hate you. Of course, in my life, i don't think anyone hates me because of the things i've done at work, but i see a lot of this misdirected hate in the form of gossip and talking behind others back. A job is a place to work of course, but is it ok to just stand there and see everyone pick on a person? I guess everyone deserves what they get if they act like a know-it-all or even say's unapporiate things. People learn that they are not liked and end up being miserable at work. Its kind of a sick process now that i think about it. But hey, thats life right?