to hear a pin flop

CNN article here.

"Obama has been defending his patriotism ever since the beginning of the primary season, when he was first criticized for not wearing a flag pin -- which he now does much more frequently -- and when false rumors began circulating that he did not say the Pledge of Allegiance.

A widely distributed photo also seemed to show him failing to place his hand over his heart during a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner.""

So how many people actually believe this to be an important sign of character?

No offense. Unfortunately, I just lack opinion in general so this seems crazy. Explain please! :-)

shining examples

On a jewelry search (ask me if you wanna know/help) and it's hard knowing where to start! Though even people like me who in theory like things neat, simple, and thus elegant, crave something slightly out of the ordinary, with a little kick. I saw something similar to this crane on my friend once. Isn't it just the right amount of unique? Um, expensive and probably not fitting though. I kind of want one for my own.



Found at Kaboodle.

we got game

Excited for the Olympics? I am. It all started with "We Are Ready", a song that reminds me of a Pokémon theme song, which I didn't like very much. There's a Jackie Chan version too which I have yet to listen to.



And then came "Beijing Huan Ying Ni (Beijing Welcomes You)" which sounds way cheesier than "We Are Ready", but I love 100x more. (Thanks, Jae. =P)



And then I read on the wikipedia page for the 2008 Olympics that Celine Dion and Jay Chou will sing at the opening Ceremony. Both. Sweet choices. For different reasons.

Also:
"In mid-2006, video gamers held talks with the Chinese government in hopes of allowing video games to be a demonstration sport at the games. Demonstration events have not been held at any Olympic Games (Summer or Winter) since 1992."
More here.

new pic, new style

Changing things up! Inspired by tumblr blogs everywhere, and the fact that work has gotten me into a bind, shorter more informal and more frequent posts to come. Rock.

quality, not quantity!

I like it when things are dumbed down and an easy read. :-) This is a pretty good explanation and comparison about why McCain's experience as a US Senator and Obama's experience as a state legislator are...well, not really easy to compare.

Are You Experienced?

The day to day jobs and the skill set are probably more different than you thought they were. Neither is more or less important than the other, but which do you value?

gasolina

This is an article from CNN (in case you couldn't tell, most of my daily distraction reading comes from the most read/e-mailed lists...) bringing light to the practice of driving to Mexico just to get some cheaper gas.

Power to the people who live close enough by to do this; I'm sure someone out there is jealous.

I'm glad that the daily news keeps us informed as to the state of things (like our border hopping desperados)...but sometimes I wonder how necessary it is to bring to light that the gas price today is a cent higher than yesterday. I'm a bit tired about hearing about the gas prices going up...aren't we at the point where the news should report if something is out of the ordinary? Something that is noteworthy, nay, newsworthy? There was an article about a week ago about how the prices went down by a cent or two; that was exciting enough. But it's back to going up, up, up.

And it's been going up, up, up for a few years now. What is the public's obsession with hearing about the gas prices?

I'm starting to realize that media manipulates and caters to the audience more than I really thought it did. Not only do we get articles about the normal newsworthy events, tragedies, interesting health news, etc...but we get articles that fuel our misery and complaining. People like to complain. Is this not universal? I mean yes, some people feel guilty for complaining too much sometimes (and some feel no guilt at all). But in the end, there's someone you vent to...even it's your blog. Or cat. Or it's all inner monologue.

We don't really need to know every week that the gas prices are still going up. It might be nice to know if they're going down, but even so, unless you're really into tracking the economy through gas prices (which you can do yourself going to the pump down the street) it doesn't need to be written about. It's an easy way for a news sites and stations to churn out a blurb about a single number statistic and fill up some time and space. And for people to have more to complain about. With statistics they can relate to!

duh, it's good for you...it's organic

caution: this is a rant.

Conversation at my tae kwon do class yesterday:
Mother: Hi, do you have the number of ZPizza?
Me: Oh, sorry I don't think we do...and the computer's out from the blackout. Do you have it Master B? (I don't actually call him that, but didn't feel like using his name!)
B: Oh, no I don't either. ::looks at little girl by mother:: You like ZPizza huh? It's really good, isn't it?
Mother: Oh, yeah, and it's SO healthy.
Me: Heh, yeah, pretty much I guess. (referring to pizza in general)
Mother: I mean it's ALL organic. And the crust is whole wheat, and I mean we all need carbs, right? And then there's some tomato sauce, organic, and then I mean, cheese and who can argue with cheese, right?

Okay lady. Hold on. Let's think about this. But you're right, I can't argue with cheese if you're not gonna argue with the cheese.

Pizza in itself is, in my opinion, one of the better fast foods. However, cheese, the part I can't argue with, because really, you can't argue for it either, is still really high in fat and calories. It's really the worst part of the pizza nutritionally since it's usually piled on. (But the best part of the pizza otherwise. =P) A slice of pizza is gonna be about 250-500 calories, much from fat.

I don't want to say as much as I originally thought I did (mostly the whole wheat business, and also if zpizza even uses it, but not enough time).

But please people, don't ever use organic as a reason for something to be good for you. Or the whole grain stuff. That's so sketchy due to improper labelling that we can not yet ever really know if we're getting the good stuff and not the nutritionless processed grains. But it's good as an alternative to other pizzas. And organic tomato sauce versus non-certified? Well, okay, it's a slightly safer and whatever morally better alternative to choose organic. Also it's arguable whether organic food is good for YOU or if it's good for the world in general. Not saying that the world isn't important. =P

But anyway you can raise a pig organically and it'll be "all organic", but if you drink its lard, will it cleanse your body?

Ew.

Didn't think so.

A pizza is still a pizza. Go get your kid some fruit.

Obama is black

As we all know, Barack Obama, is not white. Not purely anyway. I personally don't really want to call him black, but for lack of a better term, he self-describes himself as such. (I don't have strong political reasons at all for not saying black, but why are asian-white half breeds endearingly called halfies, while there is no distinction for most any other race/ethnicity?)

My officemate sent me a link to this video so I could join in on the anger and annoyance she experienced when watching it. It's some independent interviewers talking to people, mostly Clinton supporters, on what they'd do if Obama were the democratic candidate. (Yeah, this post is a bit old.)



I don't what to say or even what not to say about this video. There's so much to dig into and be perturbed about. I've decided not to particularly bash these people because I have been found blissfully ignorant about things (albeit topics far less tragic, like which finger the engagement ring goes on). Fine, some people just haven't been exposed to and educated in the same way most of us have. (The way that democrats and republicans just don't understand each other and assume our respective beliefs to be pure fact is for another day.)

Was gonna tie in some stuff from the interview on Jimmy Kimmel yesterday before Game 5 of the NBA finals, but right now I should get back to work. :-) It was cute, and light-hearted, with a few moments of things that fall on the "good" side of the spectrum of racism. :-) Firstly, as my friend Mike was apt to point out that it was a black guy being interviewed about basketball before a big game. He must be an expert, right? Also a pretty sweet clip of Obama playing basketball. Also his mention that in Hawaii where he was part of a HS championship team, the people of asian descent made it easy for him to be pretty much one of the tallest in the league. Also the fist pound at the end of the interview. Woo. Here's the interview. Obama's smile has won me over.



"Do you think that if the Lakers come back that it might encourage Hilary to come back too?"

Hehe.

art, life, all look same

I don't remember the saying exactly ("art mimics life" or vice versa or replace one of those with "nature"...) but sometimes I feel like I'm living in a movie.

That's not an unusual thing for someone to say. Usually it has to do with a lot of drama happening at once from work, family, inner dialogue, all at once or funny coincidences, or most likely, a lot of relationship issues are happening, and life feels like a telenovela, minus the bad dramatic chords.

But yesterday I felt like my life was like an indie movie short. One of those without elaborate dialogue, and are just clips and glimpses from life.

There's this guy, grey hair, always in a Popeye's uniform, and his name tag says "Floor Manager". (Somehow I don't remember his name.) But I actually didn't notice this right away.

Clip 1: (June 2007)
Shopping in Safeway a little less than a year ago shortly after moving. In the produce section I wander away from my cart (which is manned by a neighbor who I was shopping with) and go to the lettuce. A man with grey hair and slightly on the heavy side stature stands with a lettuce head in either hand. He has a name tag on. I assume he works at Safeway since I didn't read that it said something else. (But that wouldn't be in the movie clip 'cuz there's no inner dialogue!!!) Anyway. He starts muttering to me/himself...unclear. Talks about being a manager at I guess it's Popeyes in retrospect. He mumbles more about something someone said to him and he kept repeating "I'm the *mumble* manager. I know better than you." after a few sentences. The little spritzer that keeps the veggies looking fresh comes on. "Ooh free shower," he says. He proceeds to put his arms in the mist and sighs in the relief from the hot weather. Meanwhile I don't know whether to make an escape or keep talking to him. Eventually I talk to him about baseball and he starts to apparently speak "normally". But he reverts. I escape at some point.
My neighbor and I comment to each other how crazy he is.

Clip 2: (April 2008)
I see the man in his Popeye's uniform on the metro station track. He looks lost and confused as he did at our first meeting long ago. I look on from a small distance away, as if I'm ready to protect him from anything that might come his way.

Clip 3: (May 2008)
I see him at Popeye's behind the counter at Popeyes in Old Town. He's not doing anything per se...not cooking, not working the register. I guess he's managing the floor...
(Reminds me a bit of "I am Sam" with Sam working at Starbucks actually. Ugh, that movie made me so sad and angry and I only watched the first 15 minutes.)

Clip 4: (June 11th 2008)
I see him asleep on the bus, exhausted. In his Popeye's Chicken uniform, name tag on. Konked out. Since I saw him at the metro that other time, I assume he missed his stop since this was past the metro stop. Not sure what to do. I leave him be.

Well the indie movie short isn't over I s'pose. There has to be something to tie it all together to make you think...
Maybe he'll wake up at the last stop on the bus and something terrible happens and it'll be in the papers and I should've woken him up? (In reality, the bus ends at another metro stop one station away, so I'm sure he'd work things out.) Maybe I see his obituary a few months later, and somehow it'll say something really mean like "_____ always seemed to go through life completely unnoticed, but he loved his life and worked hard anyway" and then the movie would go back in time to the other times I saw him and I'd make friends with him and he'd be a happier guy. Or he'd own the Popeye's franchise one day and I'd see him in the news that way. I don't know how it'll end. Maybe it won't. Sometimes I miss the short before the movie because I'm buying popcorn.

supply and demand

Who knew?
This CNN article outlines how the economy of the state of California could finally be getting the boost it needs (the boost that everyone needs) with the introduction of the gay marriage market. Hotels, planners, caterers...all booked up and benefitting from a seemingly un-economy-related court decision.

I think it's a fine reward for a good decision.

Hopefully just as this was a hidden plus, there aren't any bizarrely linked downsides.

That's all for now! Busybusy.

it's all about status quo

I just read an article in the New York Times about how even the rich, or slightly less rich due to the faltering economy, are a bit distressed. The article does mention that no one will shed tears over their woes, but it's fair to say that I think most people haven't given a thought as to how this is affecting the wealthy.

Perhaps a change from 20 million to 2 million doesn't seem as bad to the families struggling to stay middle class, but what it comes down to is change and keeping face. The article mentions random things like fear of spouses leaving and getting divorced because they may have married somewhat for the money. What I found more interesting is that most of the rich were not worried about not being able to eat or have a place to live, but they were worried about other people catching on. It seems that even the common democracies has its pharoahs, and the common people are not meant to see that they are at all vulnerable to things that affect us. The article mentioned taking out loans before art shows just to make it seem like they were going to buy a painting, when in reality they needed the money.

Do we need the upper class to stay that way? What would really happen to the public mindset if we knew that the moneybags of our society were also being affected by the national money problem?

I think that even though the masses are obsessed with tabloid stories of celebrities and the high and mighty falling...that the rich having money, something that has to be true by definition, gave the public reassurance that the money was somewhere. No matter what your income, a making a fifth of what you used to is no joke.