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Thursday, June 30, 2005
trippin' to Babylon
So after about a month of trying to search / scam a deal on cheap airfare, I decided to pony up a big chunk of airline miles to go to Babylon, er, LA see my friends Grace and Joe. Getting an airline ticket solely via mileage was yet another reminder of my poverty, but seeing how I feel I owe it to the both of them to show up to their wedding, I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much. Easy come, easy go. As another side consequence of getting a ticket through this way is that I'll actually be in LA a little while longer than I thought - instead of the Thursday to Sunday trip I wanted (July 14th-17th) , I'll actually be in LA from Wednesday to Monday (July 13th-18th). I'll be crashing at my cousin's house in Westwood, but since he's working, I'll probably be on my own to seek out entertainment. Anyone wanna hang out while I'm down in LA? I promise I'm easy to amuse. .:. Dave Chappelle loves WoW! haha. I wonder what race/class he plays... maybe that rogue named "I'm Rick James, B!%#$!" will have to sell him his account. | (4) comments 
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
the greatest American?
I recently read an article about a public poll organized by the Discovery Channel and AOL asking people to vote who they thought "The Greatest American" in the history of America is. A similar poll in Great Britain crowned Winston Churchill "The Greatest Briton". Now, a reasonably educated person like myself would probably guess the winner might be among a group of names like George Washington (general, first president, founding father), Abraham Lincoln (won Civil War, ended slavery, good writer), Ben Franklin (founding father & inventor), Franklin Roosevelt (ended the Depression & won WWII), or Thomas Edison (genius inventor). But according to the results of the poll, the greatest American is... RONALD REAGAN! WTH!?!?! Don't believe me? The result. Nothing against Ronnie, but leave it to Americans themselves to make the people of our country look idiotic and lacking historical perspective. While many credit the guy with ending the Cold War, there were other less glamorous things that went on like the Iran contra scandal, ridiculous spending on the Star Wars program, and the questionable concept of "Reagonomics" which left our government with an enormous financial debt that we still carry today. Not exactly a record of undisputed greatness. The rest of the list isn't much better: 1 Ronald Reagan 2 Abraham Lincoln 3 Martin Luther King Jr 4 George Washington 5 Benjamin Franklin 6 George W Bush 7 Bill Clinton 8 Elvis Presley 9 Oprah Winfrey 10 Franklin D Roosevelt 11 Billy Graham 12 Thomas Jefferson 13 Walt Disney 14 Albert Einstein 15 Thomas Alva Edison 16 John F Kennedy 17 Bob Hope 18 Bill Gates 19 Eleanor Roosevelt 20 Lance Armstrong Getting head in the Oval Office gets Clinton in at number 7?! Oprah is in the top 10? For what, promoting shameless materialism by passing out gifts, celebrity idolization, and the idea that race relations in our country boils down to just white and black people?! Elvis Presley as number 8? I guess if you consider a white person appropiating African American music for the mainstream as revolutionary, he merits a spot in infamy. George W. Bush is number 6? His presidency hasn't even finished! OK he can be number 6, but only if during the Bush presidency the nation of Iraq becomes sovereign and self-sustaining, North Korea and South Korea re-unite, Israel and Palestine become peaceful co-existing nations, the nuclear weapons of the world are disarmed and abolished, Al Qaida disbands and surrenders to US forces, AIDS in Africa and Asia is cured, all Americans learn to speak at least one language besides English, and SUVs are banned from being sold to the general public. Gah. This poll is a reminder that using AOL really does make people more stupid. What a joke. | (3) comments
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Cousin Hillary's Wedding
Last weekend in pictures. I hate it when I forget to publish an entry.   The wedding ceremony.  Some of the cousins.  Cousin Hillary & family... the Tsang gang.  It's funny to meet a kid named after you.  Me, moi-moi, cousins Erica & Byron.  Cousin Ryan says, "See you in October, sucka!" | (2) comments
Sunday, June 26, 2005
family business
Back home... it was a great weekend. The atmosphere for celebrating cousin Hillary's wedding was great - like I said before, it's nice to come together for a happy occasion. Now that all the cousins are older, it's even easier to laugh at the Lee / Tsang / dela Cruz / Chan family foibles of our parents' personalities. The theme song running through my head this weekend: You ain't got to get heated at every house warmin' Sittin' here, grillin' people like George Foreman Why Uncle Ray and Aunt Sheila always performin'? The second she storms out then he storms in Y'all gon' sit down, have a good time at this reunion And drink some wine like Communion And act like everything fine and if it isn't We ain't lettin' everybody in our family business -"Family Business" by Kanye West Get a sample of it right here. (right click + save as) | (1) comments
Saturday, June 25, 2005
fruit carving, level 10
Despite an hour and half plane ride with a screaming baby, I'm still alive and kicking, enjoying family time at my uncle's house in Oakland. Yesterday, I spent my time relaxing, watching DVDs, and helping my cousin Kristina prep some food for a college graduation banquet. Mom helped too. Kristina: Hey you wanna help me cut some fruit? Gar: Sure, what do you want me to do? Kristina: Cut this watermelon and scoop out the shell... we'll put a fruit salad inside it. Gar: Wha, so you want me to cut a basket then? Kristina: Naw, baskets are so boring. Everyone does that. Gar: So you want me do something different? Kristina: Yeah, whatever you want! As long we can put the fruit salad inside. Gar: (evil laugh)  Mom: WHAT IS THAT?!?! Well, cousin did say anything. I call my avante-garde creation the "Monster in the Melon". The fact that people will have to stick their hands inside its cavernous mouth to scoop out the fruit salad they wish to eat is my social commentary for the weekend. .:. Anyways, the wedding is today, and being that a 7 people are sharing 2 bathrooms, I got up early to take a shower. Getting up early... bah. | (3) comments
Thursday, June 23, 2005
going going back back to Cali
It's off to the Bay Area for a family wedding... my cuz is getting married (congrats Hillary!). I'm just glad that our whole family can get together to celebrate a happy event like this... better a wedding than another funeral. Should be lots of fun. Hopefully I'll have some good pics to post later. .:. kids, comics, & fun with English I recently got a good laugh from a link posted on Penny Arcade where a fan/teacher used their comics to let his Japanese students (junior high / high school) practice their English. You can see the whole collection here. The results were hilarious, to say the least... check it out. One particular comic I had a good laugh at was this one:  (the original strip) Hahahaha. Oh man. Before you call me a blasphemous apostate, you gotta understand the culture behind the comic and why it's funny - consider that: 1) Most Japanese people know very little about Christianity and are thus free of Western conceptions of "Jesus"; 2) How nutty Shoko Asahara is. Kids these days have such a macabre sense of humor... where do they learn it from? Stop pointing at the screen. Anyway, it's time to finish packing. To  PS Whale is freak'n delicious, especially fried. | (0) comments
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
"children learn what they live"
I was reading an article in the Japan Times about a book called "Children Learn What They Live", whose sales skyrocketed this year because the Crown Prince recommended the book, as well as reading the poem that inspired it by the same author. The 1954 poem can be read here, by Dorothy Law Nolte. It seems like common sense to me that the way kids are treated by their parents has a great effect on what kind of person they become, but maybe in this day and age, it's necessary to have a book that teaches just that. I guess common sense ain't so common anymore. .:. more Rie fu  Another Rie fu song. A soothing voice and a piano... and good English pronounciation! Haha. She's my new favorite J-Pop singer. You can take a little listen yourself right here (right click + save as). "Life is Like a Boat" Nobody knows who I really am I never felt this empty before And if I ever need someone to come along, Who's gonna comfort me, and keep me strong? We are all rowing the boat of fate The waves keep on coming and we can't escape But if we ever get lost on our way The waves would guide you through another day doku de iki o shiteru tomei ni natta mitai kudayami ni omoe dakedo mekaku shisarete tadake (Taking deep breathes as if I were transparent I thought I was in the dark, but I was only blindfolded) inori o sasagete atarashii hi o matsu asayaka ni hikaru umi sono hate made (Offer a prayer a new day is waiting Until the ends of a vividly shining sea) | (0) comments
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
memories, part v
As I look across the crowd, the thought floats to the surface of my mind.... I never knew my father knew so many people. They all sit, with the back of their heads to me... young, old, men, women, children. Most of them were from our church, but I knew that others had come from California and even as far away as Dallas, where my father attended seminary. Even with the huge sea of people, the ceiling of the church was raised far above their heads, the pews forming an arc whose focus lay on a simple stage... ...my father's open casket. My family and I sit in a darkened small room in the back, waiting for everyone to arrive before the funeral begins. I'm by myself in the front, and I squirm quietly in the hard chair I'm sitting in. The black shoes, slacks, suit jacket, and white dress shirt are new and starchy; Auntie May and Uncle Wil took me shopping just days before for the funeral clothes. The long black tie feels tight around my neck, as if it's constricting the lump in my throat as I stare blankly out in the crowd. I'm trying to tune out the low murmur of whispering, crying, and sobbing in the room. "Hey Garrett." I feel a hand on my left shoulder and I turn that direction to see Uncle Greg sitting down next to me. He's my father's 2nd oldest brother, the one closest in age and personality to my Dad, though all of his kids are older than me. I like Uncle Greg. He even laughs like Dad, but he's not laughing now. There's a look of gentleness as he tries to smile at me, the muscles on his chin moving his black beard. He stoops his head down to speak to me face to face. "Your father was a good man, Garrett. Don't forget that. You know he believed in God, right?" I nodded my head slowly. Uncle Greg's smile had faded, but even with the solemn expression on his face, there was a kindness that was comforting. "He's in heaven now, ya know? It's a better place than here. And someday, you'll see him again." It wasn't anything I hadn't already been told. But hearing Uncle Greg say it, saying it as he believed it to be true, helps me to feel better. He pats my back and puts his arm around me. We sit there in a comfortable silence, both looking out at the people who have gathered for the funeral. When we move to sit out with everybody else, we sit in the front row, as per custom. Close family sit nearby us in the row and behind us. The service isn't different than any other funeral - there's prayer, people share, a short devotional, some music. After the service, lines of people come up to view my father's casket and offer sympathies to the family. There were church members, friends, neighbors, missionaries, pastors... their faces blur together after awhile. It becomes an endless line of sad faces and pity and "I'm so sorry." Even when I cry and stop and cry again, my mind feels numb. My soul feels detached from my body. Like it keeps expecting to wake up from a dream it didn't want to have. But it wasn't over yet... it's now off to the graveside service. The pallbearers in their stark white gloves, good friends of my father like Uncle Sheldon and Uncle Paul and Uncle Andy, guide the casket into the hearse. The car ride to the cemetary seems to last forever, winding down I-5 from Seattle to down south toward my house. I stare listlessly out the window as the long procession of cars putters along. At the gravesite, the sun shines bright enough to make me uncomfortable again in the dress clothes. The gathered crowd, in black suits and black dresses, with (mostly) black hair, and black shoes remains mostly quiet during the final prayer. I swear I hear a faint breeze as it blows, but it doesn't make me feel any cooler. The sounds of crying and sobbing crescendo as they lower the casket in the ground. I can even hear the muffled cries of Auntie Amy, who along with Uncle Tom, Uncle Wil, and Auntie May, were like parents to my father when his mother passed away when he was young. And it's then that I realize why it hurts so much for them... they never imagined that they would be burying him instead of him burying them. When the casket has been finished being lowered into the ground, I wait for it. I wait for the feeling of grief and sadness to blow away, to be buried. I close my eyes and pray silently, praying that God have mercy on me and remove the feeling. But like the stubborn embers of a fire, pain smoulders still, burning a hole through me, and God is silent. The wind had stopped too and the sun continues to garishly heat up my hair, burning my head. As the crowd begins to disperse, I glimpse Uncle Greg with his wife, his eyes red too. He gives me a silent nod as we make eye contact and I remember what he said about Dad. "He's in heaven now, ya know?" I never could have imagined that just over two years later, I would have to mourn another untimely death, and that I'd be going to another funeral... ...Uncle Greg's. (memories part i, ii, iii, iv) | (2) comments
Monday, June 20, 2005
hip.hop = gang member?
A good article was in the Seattle Times about some Asian American highschool kids fighting the stereotype that liking hip.hop equals being in gang. Check it out right here. I remember my mother used to always say, "YOU LOOK LIKE A GANGSTER! YOU'RE GOING TO GET SHOT!" when I'd wear baggy pants or a large t-shirt. When I shaved my head, I think that irritated my Mom even more. But since graduating college with two degrees, the criticism has finally ceased. Thank God. Besides, if I were in a gang, I'd be a whole lot richer than I am now... | (2) comments
on father's day.
Psalm 68:4-6 "Sing to God, sing praise to His name, extol Him who rides on the clouds� His name is the LORD� and rejoice before Him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land." When my father died about 16 years ago, someone had written these verses in a sympathy card that was given to me. I don't remember who the card was from, or much of anything else about the card, except for that verse. At the time, I read those verses and it made a small part of me want to trust in God, to have hope. To the mind of a kid raised in the church, a PK (not player killer) weaned on Bible stories of happy endings, I was ready for a miraculous intervention right then and there - if Christ himself came down from Heaven on a cloud and raised my father from the dead, I would not have been surprised. Seriously. What a difference sixteen Father's Days later makes. And I felt last year is the same as now. Random thought: nobody is born cynical; life just changes some people that way. Try as I might, Father's Day is usually the nadir of every year and it is this day that I often feel the furtherest away from God... when I feel the most removed from the being whom I'm supposed to believe embodies love, justice, mercy, and righteousness. But suddenly, unexpectedly, and unexplainably depriving a wife, a son, and a daughter of a husband and father, a good man who himself had dedicated his life to serving God? Was it loving, just, merciful, and right? The darkness within laughs, snickers, and screams. It also babbles in Putonghua and Nihongo. wo bu zhidao keyi xin nage zhenli. taihen shinjiru. I've heard all the standard and pithy replies before... sorry; don't worry, life goes on; there's always hope for the future. My mind can intellectualize all the typical theological, Christian-ese responses... God is in control; God is good; Heaven is a better place than here. But none of those things that were said to me, no matter how well meaning the intentions behind them, ever made me feel better or gave me the peace I needed. I admit it, a fatherless life has hardened my outlook somewhat... it's marred my innocence. My off-beat sense of humor, laidback manner, and a soft-spot for children are the only things that smooth out a few of the rough edges of the jagged piece of rock that passes as my heart, maybe because things didn't turn out quite how a 10 year old boy thought they'd turn out. There were no mentors, or substitute fathers to speak of, though there were occasional visits from a collection of uncles, both blood and unrelated, but they had their own sons to tend to. And no matter how much I prayed, God didn't come from Heaven to help me with my homework, take me to ball games on the weekend, cheer for me when I fought in tournaments, teach me to drive a car, cook dinner when Mom couldn't, or juggle my finances. I was left to figure all that out on my own. .:. Yet despite it all, I still want to trust and believe, because the alternative sucks - a Godless world that's even more hopeless and depressing than I think it is now. I try my best to walk the path of a true disciple, of self-denial and faith. But it's hard. As a child, when I prayed before going to bed, "God, I believe in you... watch over me", I never could have imagined how difficult it is. I was asked by someone at my church to share in service about God's grace, but I turned it down... because I knew that on this day, I couldn't do it sincerely. I'd rather not speak than be a hypocrite who stands up and says, "God has given me everything I've prayed for! My life is the best-est, yay!" when I don't feel it's true. I ended up not attending church. Better to meditate on things at home than go to church and either, 1) spread my bad mood; or 2) be an object of pity. .:. One rather odd ephiphany I had while reading Silence is that every person who believes in God has their breaking point. Scripture says that God does not allow us to be afflicted with anything that we cannot bear, but if people are honest with themselves, I think everybody is just one incident away from questioning what they believe is true. The range of What if... ? scenarios that happen these days are sometimes horrific beyond belief... and even if they don't happen to me, they do happen to someone. Only some very rare and exceptional people can withstand such trials. Some days are bad days, some days are good days... June of every year always has one of my bad days. Having faith sometimes means a lot of soul-searching and wrestling with personal issues. Maybe that's why part of me is a little sympathetic to anybody who is says they're agnostic. | (2) comments
Saturday, June 18, 2005
laid out
I change my desktop often to reflect a feeling or mood. My current for the past month or so:  Imagine the same expression on a man... a 26ish Chinese guy with a shaved head. It comes too effortlessly, perhaps. | (0) comments
i wanna go to a place where i can say that i'm alright
The weekend is here... it'll be Father's Day on Sunday. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever remember how it feels to celebrate it. Fortunately, there's other things to do to occupy my mind. Cue up the soundtrack and ride off into the sunset. Feel free to click here to download a taste of the song (right click & save as). The lyrics: .:.
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Thursday, June 16, 2005
save the children?
Reading the newspaper and watching the news is sometimes an unpleasant reminder of a few of the more disturbing things about the world we live in. Granted, the media does have a tendency to embelish incidents, but I don't believe that much embelishment is necessary for a person to feel sadness when they hear that innocent children are being killed or abused. Last year, I remember my shock when I was in Japan about the story of the 11-year old girl slashing her friend's throat with a boxcutter. The latest story to hit the news is the death of a 2-year old Canadian boy in Cambodia - an entire international pre-school was taken hostage by a group of 4 men who demanded money and a vehicle. Supposedly, the only reason the boy was killed was because he was crying too much. It echoes of the Beslan incident that happened months ago. On a more local level, there was news today that a 63-year old man who was arrested in the Seattle area may be a serial child molester responsible for thousands of cases of abuse. When police raided his house, they found seven spiral notebooks (1,360 pages), with handwritten lists of names of boys, cataloged with codes that possibly describe what kinds of abuse took place. The initial police estimate is that the suspect chronicled over 36,000 incidents of abuse. He's being extradited to San Jose to face charges. what. the. hell. And don't even get me started on millions of kids serving as child soldiers in Africa, kids forced into prostition in Asia, kids living in Palestinian ghettoes, or kids orphaned by the war in Iraq. Not to mention that about 90 million children are starving for lack of food, while 63% of the American population is overweight, cramming their mouths with Mcburgers and throwing away food... a completely preventable cause of suffering. Why do people not cherish and protect the most vulnerable members of our community? Have people become that amoral and callous that the abuse and death of children is no longer an important thing? It all makes me ashamed to be a part of humanity. | (2) comments
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
...silence.
"Alright. Pray! But those Christians are partaking of a terrible suffering such as you cannot even understand. From yesterday - in the future - now at this moment. Why must they suffer like this? And while this goes on, you do nothing for them. And God - he does nothing either." The priest shook his head wildly, putting both fingers into his ears. But the voice of Ferreira together with the groaning of the Christians broke mercilessly in. Stop! Stop! Lord, it is now that you should break the silence. You must not remain silent. Prove that you are justice, that you are goodness, that you are love. You must say something to show the world that you are the august one. A great shadow passed over his soul like that of the wings of a bird flying over the mast of a ship. The wings of the bird now brought to his mind the memory of the various ways in which Christians had died. At that time, too, God had been silent. When the misty rain floated over the sea, he was silent. When the one-eyed man had been killed beneath the blazing rays of the sun, he had said nothing. But at that time, the priest had been able to stand it; or, rather than stand it, he had been able to thrust the terrible doubt far from the threshold of his mind. But now it was different. Why is God continually silent while those groaning voices go on? -from Silence by Shusaku Endo .:. My friend Mel loaned me Silence after reading it and said it was a good read. It had been awhile since I've read a good novel. I ended up reading it cover-to-cover in one day... and I'm re-reading it again for a second time. It's not often that I get completely engrossed in reading most books, but this one, I did. The best novels don't give answers, but instead pose provocative questions. Beneath the simple story of a 17th century Portugese missionary traveling to medieval Japan (where Christianity has been outlawed), there are a questions that aren't easily answered, especially for Christian readers - questions about human suffering and pain, the nature of faith and apostasy, Christianity in the context of non-Western culture... and most of all... ...the silence Of God. The questions that Silence poses are the kind that will disturb and challenge anybody who seriously thinks about them, because they are the kind of questions that don't have easy answers. For people who've ever had to live through a difficult experience, the questions will resonate even more. Even haunt you. They resonated with me, at least. Interestingly enough, the author of novel, Mr. Endo, was a Japanese Catholic who used a lot of his life experiences in his writing, particularly a focus on life as outsider, loneliness, and faith. Growing up as a young Catholic Christian in wartime Japan, in a time where fanatical Emperor-worship was mandated both by law and by culture, Endo learned in person about the harshness of being ostracized. Because of his writings, he has been compared to Graham Greene, another famous Catholic author. I have a new literary hero. Time to dig up more of his books. | (2) comments
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
so you wanna be a movie star?
*updated* ...so do ya? Do you live in Seattle? .:. We're looking for people who are interested in being in the CoHi 2005 short film project. There are 3 main characters: -1 male character - A High School senior (you dont actually have to be a HS senior. In fact college aged students are usually passable as HS students). -1 female character - Junior in College (again ages 18-25 are acceptable or anyone who can pass as a college student). -1 male "Father" character. These 3 characters are Asian in descent (perferably the same ethnicity or appearing to be the same ethnicity, but we're open to all Asians). Also minor characters are needed so if you fall into this age bracket of 18-25 your open to audition. The first audition date is Saturday June 18 at 6pm, at Chinese Baptist Church. Questions? Comments? Contact the directors via e-mail (chonga (at) myuw.net; gar2chan (at) yahoo.com). Thanks, From directors Chong Ahn/Garrett Chan .:. Holler at me if you want to be famous. One of our past actors, my friend Steph, will proudly attest to the privileges of media fame! | (7) comments
Monday, June 13, 2005
the silent life
 My film consumption continues, and unlike my recent eating habits, it's been really good... I watched 3 Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... Spring. The former is a simple story about a wandering young man who breaks into people's houses not to steal so much as sample their lives; the latter is a meditation on Korean Buddhist philosophy and life. Both movies were made by Korean director Ki-Duk Kim and featured some memorable cinematography, and of all things... beautiful silence. Talking in the films is pretty much at a minimum. I suppose it's a reflection of my personality that I have a deep appreciation for sparse dialogue. .:. I've been having trouble sleeping (again), so I've been trying to find the correct rhythm (again). Part of me is worrying about the financial details of this whole grad school adventure I'm about to embark on (tuition, living expenses, transportation), while the other part of me seems fixated on personal, internal issues. And of course, there's all the pre-grad school homework and reading lists to do. Then my defense mechanism kicks in... zombie mode. Half-asleep, half-awake, half-neurotic, half-psychotic... I like to call my chronic condition "Tyler Durden Syndrome", though without the fight clubs, therapy groups, soap, or Marla. A friend wrote recently pretty much how I feel right now: Life is still hard but it's not as hard when you don't think about it. So I try not to. Time to try to sleep. Really. | (5) comments
Saturday, June 11, 2005
distant shore
 clearly i see it stretched beyond my eyes the blue within blue .:. It's nice getting mail... my thanks to Miss pseudoFish. | (3) comments
Thursday, June 09, 2005
LEGOification
Inspired by boredom and this thread on one of my favorite sites (iPod Lounge), I decided to make a new stand/cradle for my iPod. Most of the stands other people built were on the minimalistic side though, so I decided to try something a bit more wacky, over the top, and of course, unique. The result:  I swear I wasn't chemically influenced to create my quasi-Mesoamerican pyramid... heh. Instead, my art poses the answer to question: "What kind of building would a race of primitive, alien, music-loving robots build if my iPod appeared on their planet?" (think V'Ger, heh) Various pictures of their enshrinement: -The Arrival -The Temple -The Temple (side) -The Temple (bottom close) -The Temple (top close) -The Temple (back) -The Temple with iPod (front) -The Temple with iPod (side) -The Temple with iPod (top) Those crazy robot alien heathens. Who says LEGOs are useless? | (5) comments
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
AZN Television
If you think like I think, then you'll probably agree that 90% of television is crap. Not only are a lot of shows ignorant, offensive, boring, and not funny... I'm irritated that there is usually a complete lack of human portrayals of Asian people. We're not characters... we're freak'n set-pieces/props for latest storyline involving a trip to Asia, Japanese gangsters, illegal Chinese immigrants, etc. Anyways, I still hate the evil idiotic box of blathering noise, but I've been recently fascinated by many of the shows on AZN Television (formerly the International Channel), which the local Comcast mafia carries. Korean dramas, JPop music countdowns, movies from Hong Kong & India... plus even some original "Asian American" programming. Check out this page with a video ad and Interpol playing in the background. But not surprisingly, most of the content is imported... when was last time you heard of American networks funding shows about Asian Americans? (Please don't mention All-American Girl... UGH.) It's obvious that the best produced shows are gonna come from the multi-million dollar companies in Asia, tailored to the sensibilities of each particular cultural set. As a sort of ultimate test, my mother, a self-confessed television fan has started watching the channel... and not just the Cantonese programming, either. I think she's starting to get sucked into the Korean drama shows already. So hopefully this channel will stick around. I have a feeling that if this bombs, there isn't going to be anything like it for awhile... | (2) comments
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
someone please gimme a calculator or a triple beam
 So this morning, while body parts rained from the sky in another part of the country, I dragged myself out of bed around 7:45AM to wash up & prepare for hopefully the last of the series of tests for grad school at Seattle U. Since I'm electing to specialize in elementary education, it's necessary for me to prove that I'm (superhumanly) competent in all the mathematics one might learn in grades K-8. The program requires that this competency be proven via either taking a special quarter-long class or a test... so of course, I chose the test. Most of the questions on the 14 page test weren't extremely difficult, but the excruciating thing about the test was that no calculators were allowed and all calculations had to be performed by hand, including the multiplication and division of several loooooong 4+ digit numbers. Also, because about 3/4ths of the test is short answer, I'm required to show all my work - preferably crammed on the small space provided on the test sheet. I can understand the reason, though... since I'm supposed to be teaching all this math to kids, I have to illustrate that not only do I know the answers to problems, I also have to know how to solve the problems and what processes to do. Bleh. There's a whole lot more fun things to do than take a 2+ hour math test... .:. ...like watching Layer Cake. Great flick from some of the same guys behind Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, except that Layer Cake is a bit more serious and tense than that Guy Ritchie flick. Plenty of interesting characters and funny dialogue... listening to the thick British accents was an adventure too, but it wasn't so bad. I'd like to think my Brit co-workers in Japan gave me a crash course in comprehension. Bullocks! If there's anything I've learned from movies like Layer Cake, Goodfellas, Scarface, and Traffic, it's that becoming a narco is a short-cut to a life of big money, fast cars, guns, mentally unstable men, and gold diggin' women. whoot. I guess I do have a fall back plan for funding my grad school education. | (3) comments
Monday, June 06, 2005
gg Adam & Eve
 (picture courtesy of The Brick Testament) Yesterday, I went to Quest to hear my good friend Dave speak about Genesis 3, or in Christian-ese, "The Fall". Having grown up in the church for most of my life, I'm pretty familiar with the subject, but my thinking the past few years of my life has been that it's important to re-think and carefully examine many of the ideas I take for granted, especially the spiritual understanding of the relationship of God and humanity. One of the benefits of fellowship is that other people often have insights that aren't as readily accessible on an individual basis. While the legacy of Adam and Eve's tragic mistakes in Eden fits my dim views on human nature, the part of Dave's exposition on the passage that stuck out the most to me was God's compassionate nature. Even after Adam and Eve succumbed to their own human weakness, God came looking for them... not to immediately punish them, but to talk to them and give them a chance to come back to Him. I think I needed to be reminded of that. My cynicism probably too often gets applied to my own life and I wonder why God would ever consider to come looking for me. There are times where I feel every mistake I've made in my own life has piled up and rendered me unredeemable and unworthy of even being anything other than a screw-up... but still, He comes looking, to save me from even myself. I feel grateful for His grace when I can remember that. | (3) comments
Sunday, June 05, 2005
silent music, signs to cue it
The busy-ness of the past few days has been a bit tiring, but maybe it just seems that way to a guy whose weekdays usually start around 11AM. On Friday, I went with Shiv, Val, and Josh to see "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry". It's a musical based on the famous book by Mark Twain, but the company performing it, Deaf West Theatre, added a fascinating component - the cast is a combination of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing actors. Normally, a musical filled with people who can't hear would be fodder for my sarcasm, but the production was very enjoyable. All dialogue, songs, and dance had a sign language component, so it was interesting seeing the various creative ways that the company came up with to have characters communicate - having a duo of actors dressed and moving identically, one signing and the other speaking was one thing they did. Another awesome part was in the middle of a huge chorus, all the music and singing were abruptly stopped as the actors would silently sign the lyrics - a surprise insertation for the audience into the world of people who can't hear. Good stuff. This past night, Saturday, I spent most of the day putting the finishing touches on a slideshow for a post-rally for my church's youth camp back in April. I had sorted and edited most of the digital photos earlier in the week, but I kept having last minute difficulties using Windows Movie Maker - it kept crashing when I would use certain file types (like mp3s). A small sample of my rushed work can downloaded here (~10mb WMV, right click + save as... you might have to add the ".WMV" extension). The file is mostly still pictures with a short video of our organized game time, which consisted of two teams (Empire vs Rebels) running around and chucking old socks at each other, the goal being ultimately to assasinate the opposing leader (Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker). Ah, the poetry of youthful chaos. | (3) comments
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Be
 The corner, where struggle and greed fight We write songs about wrong cuz its hard to see right Look to the sky, hoping it will bleed light Reality's a b!tch, and I heard that she bites Best album of the year so far. No joke. Listening to a single new song that you like is always nice, but for myself, it's rare to find an album where listening to every single track is special and makes up a whole new experience. Be, the new album by Common is one of those albums. I'm sure some people who hate Kanye West will dislike this album (he handled most of the production), but there's something to be said for having a record where one person is doing all the beats - it lends a more solid and unified artistic expression. Remember the old days of hip-hop when there was just one producer? Eric B. & Rakim, Primo & Gangstarr, etc. The best analogy I can make is that the best novels are usually written by a single author who has a specific vision, rather than a book with each chapter written by several authors with wildly different visions. The typical "formula" for a lot of hip-hop albums these days seems to be to shell out tons of $$$ to fill an album with singles produced by the heavyweights - you gotta get your Dr. Dre track, your Neptunes track, your Timbaland track, your Just Blaze track, your Swizz Beats track, blah blah blah. Sometimes it works, but a lot of times, it just creates albums that contain a couple of hot singles buried under loads of crap. (And the RIAA would like you very much to pay oodles of money for an album filled with loads of crap.) Thankfully, this latest by Common is nothing but sheer brilliance. Rhymes about reality, poverty, urban dysfunction, God, spirituality... this is why I love hip-hop. If you don't believe me, you can check out "The Corner" (f. Last Poets) right here. (right click + save as). I've be playing just the album for the past few days in my car on my iPod and I'm still not tired of it... | (4) comments
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in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
the facts.
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