Where is the Love ? - Black Eyed Peas

This song just touches me; when I heard it for the first time, I was young and didn't really understand the lyrics. Now that I can fully appreciate the song for its lyrical value, it caused me to observe my own life and make me think if I was contributing to this absence of the concept of love in today's society. From asking for "guidance from above" during hard times to realizing that "we got terrorist here living the USA, with the CIA, the Bloods and the Crips and the KKK", there's so much I can relate from this song to my own life. It sends a strong message to the general public to love one another. Props to Wyclef.

Listen - Talib Kweli

People today need to "Listen!" like "back in the day". Today there's too much complaining, too much ruckus, too much BS in the news, rarely is there a moment of true serenity. Maybe that's why politicians can't solve the problems of today's world. In debates they're not trying to find ends to a mean, but rather they yell their assertions back and forth. One bar I really like is when Kweli says "Loud as a whisper, quiet as a lion's roar"; how sick does that sound? Maybe I just like oxymora (did you know that the plural of oxymoron is oxymora? insane!).

Overflow - Cry on my Shoulder

This is the song I listen to whenever life gets hard. "Come here and cry on my shoulder, I'll hold you 'till its over, I love you." Those words make me tear up with comfort. I'm such a wuss. But hey, I'd rather be in touch with my emotions than end up like Okonkwo. Look what happened to him: he got all fucked up.

Woody - You Got a Friend In Me

Growing up, I was quite the Toy Story fanatic. Star Trek had Trekkies, I was a ...Toyie? Forget that. Anyways, this song is probably sung by some white dude from Texas, but I'd like to believe that Woody sang it, or else it would lose a tremendous amount of value to me. I miss my Woody toy that would say "There's a snake in my boot!" when you pulled the string on its back. Buzz Lightyear was a baddass with his laser too. Sometimes a guy just needs to hear "You got a friend in me" when life's troubles weigh you down. At least you got Woody yo.

Citizen Cope - Let the Drummer Kick That

This song from Coach Carter is one of the best songs ever. Citizen Cope (who the hell are these guys?) makes a beautiful song stringing together words that end in "-ation" such as "elation, creation, incarceration, determination, equation, humiliation, reincarnation, situation, elation, identification, retaliation, education, inspiration, no substitution, solution, conclusion." That's the first verse by the way, and if you noticed they said "elation" twice! I guess there's only so many words you can pull out of your ass when thinking of words that end in "-tion". The second verse uses these words again but throws in "education and inspiration". It's a great song with the piano and drums in the background.

1. Asian and somehow 6 foot 3.

2. M 24;  Looking for a breadwinning wife who'll do the dishes and cook when told. Closet full of skeletons, ex-convict, never pays on dates, couch potato, fighter not a lover, likes to use corny pick-up lines. What more could you want?

Dear Jay,

     Middle school is a crucial time in your life. Be smart. Use common sense.

Don't befriend the group of friends that seem cool because they don't do their work and always get in trouble. One of them will go to juvie and 2 of them are going to get held back. Do your homework, don't go to their parties and waste time. Study when you have free time, don't waste it on friends.

That doesn't mean be an introvert. Just look out for numero uno. Try new things, discover yourself. Find out what you like during these years, because in a couple years you still won't know and you'll be hating yourself for lost time.

That girl you like right now totally isn't worth it. Sure she's been getting good grades, and you probably even considered her an intellectual peer. But around middle school, she starts to get into the wrong crowd. Stay far away from her. As far as you can, and get over her. There's tons and tons of other fish in the sea once you're in high school, and college. Actually I'm not sure about the college part yet.

Don't piss off your teachers. Don't talk in class. Keep walking down on the path your on right now, and you're bound to get a referral or two. Respect your teachers even if they're wrong and you're right because really, in the end you can't win homie.

 By the way, study. Be sure to study. Don't forget to study. Did I mention study? The knowledge you get from these years of life are gonna affect how you perform academically in future years, trust me. Read the fucking science book, and pay attention in goddamn Spanish, or else you're gonna be kicking yourself in the face in highschool.

You only have a couple more years of wearing that dorky uniform you have on as you're reading this right now. Pick the private high school over the public one. You're gonna get a scholarship at the end of 8th grade. Please, please take it.

You probably already knew this, but you're gonna grow a lot more. You're what 5'10 right now? You'll be like 6'4 pretty soon. Dominate in basketball right with those midgets right now, because in highschool it gets a lot tougher man. Lose some weight too, you fatty.

Be yourself. Don't succumb to peer pressure. Do you know what succumb means? Whatever, you'll figure it out.

I've come to a surprising realization that I place facebook as a higher priority than studying on my list of priorities that doesn't really exist. I don't study very often, but I find myself on facebook or online all the time. Actually I do everything more than I study. I think I brush my teeth more than I study actually.

I need to study more.

I don't really know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing with this blog, but Mr. Ross said develop random thoughts into paragraphs, so here I am, developing. Speaking of developing, I discovered an insightful quote (on facebook of course) today. Some guy said "Life is like photography, we use negatives to develop." Or some shit like that. It was an inspirational quote in a way, but like all inspirational quotes, the inspiration is only momentary, until something else occupies your mind or you forget about it.

Why is everyone so infatuated with Bay Area "slaps"? Sure the beats "go", but they have no lyrical value whatsoever. Everyone knows Mac Dre, Traxamillion, Too Short (wtf kind of name is too short anyways? that's nothing to brag about, Too Short), it seems, but the glory days of my definition of rap, characterized by true lyricists like Nas, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, KRS-One, etc etc, is dead. Encouraging words to minority youths struggling in the ghetto, and words calling out the government have been replaced by words glorifying pimps and degrading women. There's no message in today's music, other than bragging about wealth and material possessions and advocating breaking the law. Maybe I'm just becoming jaded.

I hate math, which is weird because I used to be labeled a math prodigy of sorts, but now its a combination of uninteresting and straight annoying. I think all my friend's complaining about  "how the hell is this going to help us in our future lives" stuck to me eventually. I subconsciously began to agree with that sentiment. Mr. Ross would probably bring up Freud and tell me about my SUPEREGO or whatever that stuff is.

Why is it that things never seem to go as planned? I never saw myself in Albany a couple years ago. I planned to stay at my old school, finish out high school, get into a UC, go to grad school, get married, etc. I've been jerked left and right and finally landed here in this one square mile city called Albany. When I tell my old friend's I've moved here, not one of them knew that there was an Albany in CA, ALL of them asked me how New York was.

NBA playoffs are starting! Once again, T-mac will not be able to get out of the first round. It's like he's cursed. This year, it seemed like it was the Rockets year, when they won 19 in a row. Then Yao had to get injured. T-mac managed to stretch the winning streak to 22, but now its playoff time. The Jazz are going to destroy the Rockets. I'm in no way a Rockets fan, but you gotta feel for the guy. In 11 years in the NBA, he's 0-7 in playoff series. He'll probably be 0-8 in a couple weeks.

STAR Testing is coming up. I always trip out during tests of any kind. I have that thing they call "test anxiety" I can study for hours the night before, but when that test, that ominous test, is put before me, my mind blanks out as a plunge into a realm of darkness as everything I studied escapes me. Blah, I'll probably do alright. It can't be that bad. Why does this STAR testing have to count for anything though? One test shouldn't be a measuring stick for your ability. That's just me, the educational board will do whatever the hell they want whether I approve or not.

This seemed more like a tangent then a blog. Oh well, fun stuff. I'm out.

"The Pursuit of Happyness" is inspired by the true events in the life of Chris Gardner. It is a perfect movie to show around the winter holidays. It is the story of a man who embodies the "Me against the world" cliche'.  However, Chris is not a whiner. He's not a quitter, or even pessimistic. He knows his strengths, and what life is really about. With these things in mind, Chris embarks on a journey on which he is against incredible odds.

His humility equals out with his burning resolve and determination to succeed; mostly driven by the desire to forge a better life for his son. However, fate it seems doesn't want Chris to succeed, as when things seem to be able to sink no lower, they do. The film does a great job at showing the extent of poverty and adversity that people go through, almost speaking out to  the rich money grubbers who want to put an end to social services that come out of their taxes. Personally, the scene in the bathroom where Chris was crying trying to keep his son from waking up when someone was banging on the bathroom door was the most convicting for me. Thinking about all the times I complained that I only had about $50 dollars in my wallet really made me realize how blessed I truly was.

Will Smith does a fantastic job at playing his role. My memories of Will Smith as an actor are filled with the cocky ladies-man from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but that cocky air disappears revealing a sense of genuine warmth. His son is played by his real life son, and the chemistry they have on the screen is a big part in evoking sympathy from the audience. The son is as gracious as his father, even in unbearable circumstances. Chris's wife is the ying to his yang. Where Chris never complains about his situation, always believing through hard work things will get better, she is constantly complaining about how she has to work double shifts and about the absence of financial stability. The fact that Chris's own wife is against him really embodies just how much the world is against him to succeed.

Happyness is misspelled in the title for a specific reason. I believe it means that there is no happiness without its flaws. Even though there is a spelling error, we still get the meaning of the word, just like flaws don't outweigh the overall feeling of happiness. Happiness has very different meanings for different people; for some people happiness is synonymous with opulence: having all the money in the world to spend on every luxury the world can provide, but as Chris shows, Happyness can be as simple as a man having a son to love and to be loved in return.

Many times, people blame their circumstances for their shortcomings, but Chris Gardner shows us that there is no obstacle that can not be overcome by willpower.

I woke up to look at the clock; it was 6:00 AM.

"The hell am I doing up?" I mumbled as I went back to sleep.

When I woke up a second time, the clock read 10:30. I meant to only sleep for about 30 minutes or so not 4 hours. Realizing that I was already late for school, I decided not to go. I took a shower to clear my head and to wake up. As I got out of the shower, I heard my phone ring.

"Sup, Jay."
I recognized the voice; it was my friend Tom.
"Sup man, aren't you at school?"
"Nah, I'm skipping today. There's a sale at the TRUE store in Walnut Creek."
"Swear..."
"Yeah man, you wanna come down here?"
"You know it!"
"Cool, Stephan's gonna join us too."
"Aight, see you in a bit."

As soon as I hung up the phone, I rushed to get ready. In 30 minutes I was out of the front door and on my way to the BART station. On my way there, a homeless person passed me by. Conviction to give him some money made me stop for a second. I turned around and gave him 5 bucks. He gave me a sheepish smile, revealing a mouth full of missing teeth. You're gonna need more than 5 bucks to get that fixed, I thought, as dreams of becoming rich and helping the countless less fortunate people in the world began to brood in my head like a bee hive. What's wrong with me today? I wondered with a smirk.

I met up with my friend at McArthur BART station.
"Sup dude?" He said.
"Not much...haha."
Before we could finish our intellectual conversation, I saw Tom's brother Stephan running towards us.
"Let's get going." He said panting.
"Yeah, ok." I replied.

We got on the BART going to Walnut Creek. We sat down across from a guy wearing fake Jordans. Tom, Stephan, and I had a colorful conversation on where the guy got them. We listened to music. We talked about life. We talked about how much we hate school. Well, Stephan and I did at least, as Tom was something of a genius (he had a 4.5 GPA). After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at Walnut Creek.
"Finally!" Stephan exclaimed.
"Seriously...."I said in agreement.

As we got off the BART, we saw one of our friends Chewy.
"AYYYYYYY!" Chewy exclaimed in recognition.
We walked over to where he was.
"Where you going bro?" Tom asked.
"The sale at TRUE." Chewy said.
"Oh nice, we're going there too. We were gonna call you to go anyways." I said.
"Really? What a coinc-"
"Let's get going." Stephan said again, cutting Chewy off.
After cursing Stephan out, Chewy smiled and we went on our way.

We saw TRUE in the distance in about 30 minutes, but there was nobody. There were no lines, no people fighting for shirts, no one cursing because their size wasn't available. As we got closer, we saw an ominous sign. "SALE MOVED TO TOMORROW." It said, almost mocking us with it's huge neon letters.
"What the fuck."
"Shit."
"Hell no."
"Fuck that."
We all said, as an old lady passed by us shaking her head at us troubled youth.  After our little episode, we sat in front of the store wondering what we should do.
"Well since were in WC, let's go to my uncle's movie theater." Stephan said.
"Let's check out H&M first." Tom said.
"Man you always go there!" We all said in unison.
"..."

We went to the movie theater, and decided to watch Step Up 2.
"What a great movie." Tom said, as he attempted the moves we had just seen on the big screen.
"That crap was lame. The only thing good was the dancing." Stephan said disapprovingly.

"Excuse me." someone said.
We turned around to see 3 girls. Hot girls.
"You boys busy? We're new to this city and we're looking for some people to show us around." They said.

"Sure, we'd love to help y-"
"Let's get going." said Stephan indignantly, cutting off Chewy once again.
As we left the movie theater, Chewy was furious.
"Man, just because you got a girl, Stephan." He said hotheadedly.
"Dude they weren't talking to you when they said they wanted to have a good time." Stephan said stoically.
"Ohh burned." Tom and I said.
"Man whatever." Chewy said.

After the movie theater, we went to the mall in Sun Valley. Luckily there was a sale there at Against All Odds. Let's just say we spent a lot of money there, money we should have saved up for things like notebooks and pencils (sarcasm). After spending an hour in AAO, we sat down to eat for about 30 minutes, then went to Foot Locker. The new Jordan Spiz'ikes were released, and we each wanted them.
"Only one person should buy it, because if we all have it, it'll look stupid." Tom said.
"Let's play rock-paper-scissors to determine who can buy them." Chewy suggested.
"Yeah, okay." Stephan replied nonchalantly.

Tom won.

"In your face!" Tom said as he bought the sneakers.
"Damn you." Chewy mumbled under his breath.
"What?" Tom said.
"Damn-you-be..?" Chewy said.
"Uhh..."
"Haha, it's nothing." Chewy said with a smile.

It was getting late. At about 10:30, we were sitting in Barnes & Nobles, just enjoying each other's company.
"I think it's time we get going." Stephan said with a yawn.
"Yeah man, it's getting pretty late, we don't want to miss school tomorrow." Tom said as we all glared at him for mentioning school.
"Oh yeah, we wouldn't want to miss school." I said sarcastically.
We all laughed.

We walked to the BART station, and went our separate ways. When I got home, I collapsed on my bed.
"Today was a fun day." I said as a I fell asleep happily.

I've been looking at the image with the caption: "This is not a pipe." For about 15 minutes straight, ruminating on what its meaning could possibly be. I see a pipe, but the artist is telling me that it isn't a pipe. I feel this picture is challenging my perception on what is real. Like the Matrix. Morpheus asks Neo what he defines as real, then goes on to tell him that his definition of real is simply electric signals firing of in his brain. I don't know where I'm going with this alliteration ,but that's what it reminds me of.

I think another message in this painting is not to take things for face value. Not to judge people or things based on outer appearance. A person may appear as a _______ but that might not be what they really are inside. I guess the artist wasn't a superficial guy if he would advocate something like this, but the fact that he is a surrealist and leaves his art to open interpretation kind of shows that he looks past the outer layer of things and likes to delve deep into the inner chambers of things.

I find it impossible to come to a conclusion as to what the meaning of this painting is, which is strange. Paintings usually have very concrete meanings behind them with the use of symbolism or colors that really represent something else. This painting does use it, but there's an infinite number of possibilities as to what the hell the artist is trying to convey. No one can really know the meaning behind this painting but the artist who painted it, but hell, maybe he doesn't even know. I like this unorthodox feeling of leaving it up to the people who look at the painting to determine the meaning of the painting.

My head hurts.

1. Do you believe in karma?
I don't believe in karma necessarily, but I do believe in there being a consequence for all your actions. I guess I do believe in karma.

2. What one current event in any aspect of world news do you think is being most neglected or underrepresented?

The arson attack in South Korea on one of its historic landmarks 남대문 (Namdaemun), or the Great South Gate, was considered to be the country greatest national treasure..supposedly its going to take over 3 years to restore and cost over 20 million dollars. What do people accomplish by doing crap like this?

3. If you could have any one superpower, what would it be and why?

I want to fly. Birds look so free whenever I see them in the sky. I want to experience what its like to spread my wings and just soar off into the distance.

4. If you could invite any 5 famous people or characters to your birthday party, whom would you pick?

1. Michael Jordan - Dude MJ. How the heck did you get so good at basketball? You crazy guy.
2. George Bush - So I can slap him in the face. Or he could be the pinata.
3. Dave Chappelle - He's a pretty funny guy. Surely, he'd make the party a blast.
4. Jessica Simpson - I really want to know if her acting stupid is just a facade, or if she really is the epitome of daftness.
5. E-40 - Every dream party has a performer! E-40 would rock the house.

5. If you could live in any film or book, what would you select? Would you want to be one of the characters, or would you want to be you (introduced as a new character)?

I would be the protagonist in any romance novel...joking. I would be a transformer in the movie Transformers. Being a butt-kicking robot would be pretty awesome.

7. I used to always trip out that my strawberry Chapstick tasted so strongly like strawberries (and why was I eating so much Chapstick?). Then I realized that it wasn't the taste that was strong; it was the smell. They say that smell is the strongest scent. What is your favorite smell? USE CONNOTATIONS, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, OR ANALOGY in your (butter) saucy answer.


8. If you could invent a new class for AHS to teach, what would it be?

AP PE. I'd make my students run a mile every day, and follow that with an hour of push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. I doubt anyone would sign up for my class, though.

9. Identify any symbol from any film ever (pick your favorite if you can think of many from which to choose). Identify what it means and why you picked it.

In the movie 300, King Leonidas represents the guy everyone wants to be. A loving wife and 10-pack abs. Not all guys can say, "THIS IS SPARTA!!" and send chills down your spine quite like King Leonidas or pull off that beard. My God, that beard was awesome.

10. Will humankind still exist in 300 years?

Yes. There will be flying cars, Playstation 20s, XBOX 1800, Nintendo Thing, and robots. That's an ideal situation, but realistically speaking, though I do believe humans will still exist, I think that if we do not take the initiative into doing something about the global warming issue, the earth will be a very different place.

11. What is the most embarrassing song to ever grace your IPOD? Why was it there, may I ask?

Souljah Boy. It was crackin when I first put it on, but then the radio; my god that damned radio completely overplayed that song.

12. Corey Chin's brilliant question (and it's got me curious): How much would you charge to clean Mr. Ross' microwave?

An A in the class. But, honestly, how gross could a microwave be unless he purposely made it dirty?

13. Did you support your answers?

Somewhat.