Sensationalism

Have any over you ever wondered why we think Celebrity news is "sensational"? Or why we value the personal life of a stranger more than news about the world we live in and how it affects us?

I personally believe that this trend of sensationalism started during the Cold War.

During that time there was very little happening in the world...it was a quiet time. A time when newspapers and magazines needed SOMETHING to fill their empty pages, and since the entertainment industry was blossoming, thats what they chose to cover.

Talk shows began covering Elvis Presley's new style of music and even then there were still very few celebrities so the more information they could grab about these celebrities the more space they could fill in their publications.

The people were fed celebrity news, and kids growing up in that time became accustomed to it and were taught that Celebrities lives are our news.

Thus today those kids read these magazines which makes its way into their kids worlds too, and we are stuck in the pop culture that we are in right now.

That's what I think, what are your opinions?

Americans stupidity

First watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

I have my own ideas about this, but I want to hear your thoughts:

How can we be so ignorant?

Is it because of our education system (if so, what makes it so bad?), our conservatism, our World War II arrogant mindset, our uncaring attitude...

And how do we fix it?

Tumblr

So...my friends from California made me make a Tumblr in Feb (if you remember, when you all moved to Blogger I was complaining that I already had a Tumblr)

And NOW they're making me use it.

So I've decided I'm going to keep this Blog to post my thoughts and opinions on issues, because I tend to think of that shit a lot.

And then my Tumblr is going to be a video blog on a more casual "WASSSUP!?" level.

This is the link (there's nothing up yet as of July 21st)


Password is: slamacow
:)

Internships for next summer...

So you guys...

I've been talking to friends from CMU and home and lots of people have had lots of trouble finding a job or internship (I lucked out!)

Not only does the economy suck, but its also hard to know where and how to apply!
And it's always hard without connections.

So I made this nifty internship spreadsheet. I'm adding all the internship opportunities I know of in this area so if some of you guys want to come visit me next summer and work here, you'd know where to apply :D

And of course, if you happen to know of some internships in your area (but you don't want to stay in your area, or the company doesn't want someone of your major, etc), you should add it to the list so other people can apply!

It automatically color codes it, so just write what major, etc. Follow the example.
If it doesn't color code it immediately, don't worry about it: I'll check it later.
And you can still sort by major

Also!

Keep this between just us and your close friends. We don't want EVERYONE applying to the same places because then no one will get anything! :)

I know it's super early to think of this kind of stuff, but just keep it in your Google docs and look at it later !

The Formula

You know, whenever I'm home, I almost always feel like an underachiever.

My ex-boyfriend is travelling the globe to compete in canoing competitions. He just got back from Vancouver. He's pursuing an Aeoronautical engineering degree at UC San Diego.

My best friend is currently coordinating and directing her own summer camp to teach kids the value of creativity. She is attending Stanford (major undecided)

My close friend is making a series of fashion music videos and is designing her own fashion collection to show at three shows in the Bay Area next year. She is pursuing a chemical engineering degree at UC Berkeley.

My art friend is making two 5-minute animations: one completely drawn by hand, the other completely done in Maya (3D models) in preparation for when he applies to work PIXAR in a few years. He is incorporating self composed music and voice acting. He goes to SAIC.

I've always wanted to be different and explore my abilities and the world.
I want to do something daring, and out of the ordinary. But at this point, I'm just plain...I'm in the school band, I play video games, I do martial arts, I play badminton, I have an internship... I do everything that is ordinary and organized. And I've always felt like a reason for that is I was always told I should be organized and businesslike to be a success, but the older I get the more real it becomes to me that that isn't the only way to success.

I saw a movie last night called "Acceptance" about how everyone is stuck in the "birth, school, college, job, kids, retire" formula.

Does anyone else feel like their skills are being contained because of this need for our society to follow that mold?

So my main question to you is:

If your parents were cool with whatever you did, and you could do anything with your life, what would you do and why? And if you couldn't think of anything, do you think it's because you have been brainwashed or do you really support this formulaic way to life?

I personally would join Drum and Bugle Corps International.
I'd make my own fashion and mask line and make my own website to promote it.
I'd start my own ska band and compose music, and maybe even try to become a pop star in LA.
I'd travel around the world for inspiration and just to see and soak in all the other cultures in the world.
I'd also move to San Francisco or New York City, or even Berlin!
And of course...
I'd make Jeremy Chen (MVHS) and Madeleine Robson (CMU) design a house modeled after buildings seen in Zelda and continue to collect random Zelda trinkets :D

Maybe I can just be one of those Silicon Valley stars that makes tons of money before they are 35 and then retire early and do most of those things :) There's still hope!

Length of Days

Has everyone ever wondered why days seem so much longer when you're a kid and so much shorter as an adult?

Do you think it's because as a child, you've only lived a limited number of days so each day is a larger percent of your overall life (A 5 year old child has lived 1825 days, so a day is 1/1825, while an 18 year old college student has lived 6570 days, so a day is 1/6570 a much smaller percentage) and thus it feels shorter?

Or maybe because as a child, you are easily excitable and look forward to so many small little things because you're present hedonistic (i.e. you look forward to ice cream tonight, playdate tomorrow morning, going to the park tomorrow afternoon), and as we know, if you watch the clock for class to end the clock seems to go 1/100th the speed it was going when you're not watching it. As an adult, you look forward to bigger achievements (i.e. graduating high school, concert in a month, finals in a few weeks, bigger events) so we aren't constantly watching the clock so time seems to go faster.

Similarly as children we consciously want time to go faster while as an adult you don't want it to. As a kid you WANT to grow up, you WANT to be big so you can go on the big rides at the amusement park, etc while as an adult you DON'T want to get wrinkles and you DON'T want to make that presentation for work tomorrow (so you don't look at the clock). And using the same principle as above, when you're consciously looking at the clock, time goes slower (because you aren't distracted enough?)

What are your thoughts on the matter?

UPDATE: I actually found this : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122322542
?

I believe...

...that every pool table in CMU's University Center should be adorned with this



...and that my first car should look like this:

I need to be less interested in things

My TODO List for summer (at least what remains...):

Projects
Finish painting I started last summer
Start/Finish a Zelda flash movie
Start a DnD online application
Finish scrapbook I started last summer
Compose a ska song based on a classic
Make the umbreon costume for next year's Fanime
Make the Zelda costume for when I go pick up Skyward Sword
Silk screening!

Video Game wise
Beat Majora's Mask
Play Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Play Soul Calibur III
Beat Twilight Princess again
Beat Spirit Tracks
Get to level 55 in Age of Conan

Social events
Go to San Francisco once
Go to San Francisco twice
Go to Bintang with Baddy team
Go to Band Camp
Teach Steven how to play saxophone
Hang out with Abha at least 3 times
Hang out with Aditya at least once
Hang out with Tim at least once
Hang out with Colin, Karen, Jeremy and Tim at least once all together

Other
Get to 7th kyu in Aikido
Buy a bokken
Learn Groovy on Grails
Learn JavaScript and be awesome at it
Read "March Violets"
Spend more time with the Family
Watch Toy Story 3
Watch Inception

does anyone else think I'm screwed?

Nidan Test

WAS EPIC!!!!

It was pretty long and ridiculous.
They test more on your teaching ability than actual ability I feel, they'd ask questions like "what angle should your feet be at after the second pivot of ____ technique?"

The name was in Japanese. How hard is that?

Then they'd ask "how would you fall if ste did ____ to you?"

Kareem-san studied for this 2nd degree blackbelt test for 10 years, and for the last year woke up at 6am every day except for Saturday and drove for 40 minutes to the dojo to practice.

I hope he passes!

Weeks late

Yeah, I know...it's been a few weeks, but I've been really busy (I swear!)

Major events since the last time I posted:

Work
- I got my first paycheck after 1.5 weeks of work... $1200 baby!
- I have no freaking clue what I'm doing at work anymore. Everything from now on I have to write in Groovy and Grails, two languages I'm fairly unfamiliar with.
- I have a coworker who is 19 years older than me and hits on me. Oh also, I was told I have to inform you guys he's single. So if you're interested...

Fanime
- I went to Fanime! I didn't take any pictures, but my friends did, so here are some from the private Facebook album.






- At Fanime, I got humped by some huge Soul Calibur fan...and I couldn't escape. It was very awkward.
- Also Melissa, Leslie and I participated in a game show in which we tried to dance and sing to Bad Romance. Crawling on the floor like Lady Gaga is a lot harder than it looks. It should be on Facebook soon.

Friends
- I've been having my dinner dates. Most with people who used to have crushes on me...the last one was pretty awkward. A really touchy-feely guy who kept trying to get me to sit on his lap, but he's the guy you can't NOT like because he's so outgoing. I missed him nonetheless while I was at CMU.
- Mountain View High School graduation was yesterday. I saw so many of my friends there! People who are two years ahead of me, people one year ahead, tons of people for my grade and of course, the grads and their friends years below. It was like A GIANT PARTY!!! I ended up talking to my old alto section leader for quite awhile. I also talked to a guy I used to have a crush on for...a couple years. And I was supposed to help my other friend build a grave for himself becauseeee
- he's making a short film as a portfolio piece for when he applies to work at Pixar! We already agreed I'm going to help him storyboard it and I'm going to be a voice actor hurray!

Activities
- I've been going back to Aikido three times per week hurray! Everyone remembered me and even the new people (who might be technically higher ranked than me now because they actually take the tests) really like me and train with me a lot. I've been told that I'm "confident, cool, and very talented!" by several people. I feel so skilled hehe
- I've been making videos again... if you haven't noticed :)
- My friend Alex coaxed me into spending $40 on another MMORPG...well on the expansion to the best one (in my opinion) that we played together. And yet I haven't played it really since I spent that money. Fuck you Alex.
- I've been drawing again, but the graphite irritates my fingers. Bitch.

On another note...

I FINALLY GOT A DIGITAL CAMERA!

14 megapixels
720p HD video
5x optical zoom
panoramic picture (can only do up to 3 pictures long though)
smile detection (not even face any more)

comes with case and 4GB sandisk

all for $100

I LOVE COSTCO!



That's about it folks. Tomorrow I'm checking out the blackbelt test at my dojo! I'M SO EXCITED! I'll take pics :)

At Work

I started my internship today.

I almost missed my light rail this morning, and I got to work around 9:15.

NO ONE was around, so I explored the building (they have a suite in a huge building, but not their own building).

The lady who interviewed me finally arrived. But she's not the one for whom I'm interning for.

Finally, half an hour later, the woman I'm interning for arrived.

She was on her phone and just handed me a laptop and rushed to her office.

I had to call the folks in Scottsdale, AZ to get my password and network set up, and no one else in the office knows what I'm supposed to be doing.

So I guess I'll just wait 'til she's off the phone.

It's been over an hour...

Well, there's $20 free right there.

Generational Differences

I don't know if this is normal of kids and their parents, but when I talk to my dad, we tend to get into these philosophical and/or very deep conversations.

Yesterday in specific, we discussed the generational differences between our generation (Generation Y I believe we're called?) and my dad's generation ("baby boomers").

My dad concluded that his generation was raised by parents who went through the WWI and WWII, and because of this they were raised as spoiled brats. Their parents, having seen rough times, wanted their children to be privileged. His generation quickly became greedy (hey, remember Enron, and now bp?) and careless with money (look at the good times they went through: the 70's, the 80's, the dot com boom of the 90's...). Hence, the idea that one can buy a car or house without actually having the money because of this idea of "easy money", that is, money that is easily obtained through loans but is not actually the money of that specific individual.

So, he describes, his generation is a bunch of greedy pigs out to get expensive cars and TVs.
He asked me: how would I describe my generation?

I pondered a bit, and thought of this.

Our generation is not as easily labeled in that it is not homogeneous the same way the baby boomers are. With the introduction of the internet and media came an ever changing world. A world in which one year is dramatically different than the last.

For example, take the baby boomer generation. What reflects a culture better than the music and movies of the time?

Every movie in the 80's will depict the girls as having frizzy hair, large hooped earrings, and jean jackets. The guys: football builds, varsity letter jackets, and jeans. Now the question is: is this a stereotype of the 80's, or a sociotype?
I'd say a sociotype.

There was but one major (maybe a few minor ones) culture in the 80's. One that wore such clothes, and listened to Duran Duran. There was no internet there to introduce those people to different styles or music. There was only the radio and TV, both of which had only a couple stations/channels and thus only played what they knew to be the most popular songs/shows.

But what of our generation?

Think about the movies in this generation:
Mean Girl depicts the different cliques in high school, each with their own fashion. Though there was the "nerd" culture and the "plastic" culture in the 80's, that was about it. There were no "popular Asian girls" or "debate team" cultures.

Movies now have main characters in many different groups: goth, punk, nerdy, geeky, "plastic"...etc.

Music reflects this diversity in taste as well.
Just look, my area is popular for hyphy music, SoCal is popular for ska, then there's rap, pop, hiphop, metal, rock, light rock, jazz...all genres that had their times in the past, but also are popular now.

Furthermore, our generation is going through a time of globalization. Americans watch anime. Japanese dye their hair blond. Europe is the hub for dance music. Koreans decided to take that dance music and create K-pop. Indians developed Bollywood. The new Miss USA is an Arab. Our President is black.

Everyone is learning from and adopting culture from one another.

With technology comes a new language. I talked to my Freshman high school English teacher, who informed me that the new line of Freshmen do not know the difference between "nite" and "night", "k" and "okay", "goodbye" and "baibai". The influence of the internet has changed the way we communicate and the way we perceive the world. These kids are still considered part of my generation, but because technology progresses so quickly, they are completely different than I am.

The point? With the ability to develop our own tastes for music and television through an infinite number of international influences (different channels, websites, etc), we can shape ourselves to be truly unique individuals. The influence of the internet changes how we perceive things and how we communicate. We can be total anime geeks that cosplay for conventions. We can be totally obsessed with Rammstein. We can be emo kids or punks, plastics or nerds. And, especially in our area of the world, we have the freedom to develop our interests in high schools that provide us with athletics, the arts, music...any outlet imaginable.

Because of this exposure to new possibilities, we have become a heterogeneous population. A generation in which no year falls in the same category. A generation in which everyone has their own opinions and is able to broadcast it. There is no way to describe my generation.

Except that everyone is a procrastinator and doesn't plan ahead.

What do you guys think?

Tira Costume Progress: 10%

So...you all know I'm going to be Tira from Soul Calibur III for Fanime (I've been literally talking about it since August).

Here's my bidaily update (is that a word?)



Since then, I've added the feathery neck part and the white cuff things...
I've also gotten a wig, that I tried dying with fabric dye and sharpies, crayola markers and watercolor paints.

It's 2 shades lighter than it should be.

Will post tomorrow!

Belated Mother's Day

My mom really wanted to do something "Mother's Day-ey" with me, since I wasn't back in CA during Mother's Day.

So first we went to our town's local 60 year old Pancake House.

Man, one thing I don't miss about CA is how expensive everything is! A plate with a single pancake on it is $11.45. And I got blueberry crepes: $10.50.

For a family of three, our BREAKFAST was over $45. What.

But I gotta say, our breakfast came with A LOT of fruit, all of which is quite pricey.

Then, depressed after spending so much money, my parents and I went to a winery 10 minutes from my house. I used to go there as a Girl Scout, but I haven't been there since 8th grade-ish. Apparently my parents have been bored without me and have been going there quite often...

So Adventure #1: Kar goes to the Picceli Winery!



The trail around the Winery (it's super huge...goes on for miles :) )



GIANT LEAVES! (Another WE DO 'EM BIG HERE kind of thing)



Prettyy

We Do Everything Big Part I

In California, we do everything big.

Oh yeah, I missed our fruit...

Chinese Food

So today I went to dim sum (sp?) with my parents.

I totally forgot how much I missed the Chinese food here.

Also, the whole restaurant was full with half Asians.

I feel just that much less unique xD

Pokemon is Poker for Little People

This is definitely the best article I've ever read.

http://www.losaltosonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21248&Itemid=47

Yay! Bay Area nerds!

Storms to Sunshine

When I left Pittsburgh yesterday, it was really stormy. I was scared my flight would be delayed.

The stewardesses on the Pittsburgh to Las Vegas flight wore dress pants and blouses and scarves. They were pretty professional looking and acting.

The stewardesses on the flight from Las Vegas to San Jose wore khaki shorts and sweater vests. The steward sang to us as we departed.

I arrived in California and it was sunny and warm! God I missed home. :)

Southwest Rap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnOxvbGOTbM

Country song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy0Yf1CAsuQ

Bloom Box

So, today I went to lunch with my brother Jason (that's not him to the right by the way)

Jason works at PayPal, which is separate from eBay but when referred to, it's usually just referred to as being a part of eBay.

Apparently a month ago, PayPal was on 60 Minutes for being one of only 5 companies using a new ground-breaking type of renewable energy called a Bloom Box. And apparently, my brother was on the campus when they took the footage for 60 Minutes and he got to meet Leslie Stahl!

PayPal is now considered the most energy efficient company in the Silicon Valley, and my brother works in the most energy efficient building!

According to my brother, 70% of the building is fueled by Bloom Boxes, 13% by solar panels, and the rest by usual means of electricity.

Slamacow!


Here's the link to the article, if you want more information:

http://ebayinkblog.com/2010/02/24/ebay-hosts-unveiling-of-groundbreaking-new-bloom-box-fuel-cell/