September 13, 2009
Breaking groupthink is always awkward.
So, in the armory fixing body cords (possibly one of my least favorite jobs) and I say in response to some question - "You betcha!" One of the other armorers says, "Ha, yes, I love making fun of her..." and trails off as we all give him weird looks. Then I realize what he's talking about and say, coldly, "You know, I like Palin."
We don't talk for the next ten minutes.
We don't talk for the next ten minutes.
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May 23, 2009
Emulate Success (the blog version)
I like to read a lot of blogs, and one of my dreams (aside from graduating, becoming fluent in Korean, and actually beating someone in fencing) is to become a blogging superstar.
Well, a blogging D-lister, at least. I'd prefer to be on the C-list, but I don't want to get my hopes up, you know? To that end, I've decided to follow the lead of that amazing blogging B-lister, R. S. McCain, who is a man to be emulated in all ways. I'd sorta like to be him, with the exception of me being a girl, and Texan, and Jewish, and...
Well, you get the picture, right? I want to get a million hits on this blog, and I'm going to do it if it kills me!
Well, a blogging D-lister, at least. I'd prefer to be on the C-list, but I don't want to get my hopes up, you know? To that end, I've decided to follow the lead of that amazing blogging B-lister, R. S. McCain, who is a man to be emulated in all ways. I'd sorta like to be him, with the exception of me being a girl, and Texan, and Jewish, and...
Well, you get the picture, right? I want to get a million hits on this blog, and I'm going to do it if it kills me!
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May 22, 2009
Summer!
Well, the summer in all its' glory stretches out ahead of me, thank god. Passed all my classes, even third semester calculus, and next semester have the joys of economics to look forward too (finally!). I'll be taking Microeconomic Theory, Economic Statistics (which I think is the same as the business statistics course), third-year Korean, and Drawing for Non-Art Majors. We'll see how that goes next August.
Speaking of Korean, got an email from my last Korean teacher, Professor Tahk. She sent me a very nice email which had the added side-effect of making me feel incredibly guilty for not giving it my all, since I spent pretty much the last two semesters stressing about Calculus first and Korean second. I shouldn't feel guilty, since I truly sucked at Calculus and needed to spend as much time as possible on that class just to pass it, but I do. Perhaps it's the fact that if I had transferred a little of that effort from calculus to korean, I would have gotten an A instead of a B those semesters - that does stick in my craw a bit, and since I like Korean, I like to give it my all, even when I don't have the time.
Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Aside from reviewing American literature and history for my CREs this August, I can pretty much concentrate on just Korean - I'm even getting a penpal! Maybe I'll email Jay and see if he'll email me back...
Of course, I'm trying to get a job. No luck there. I'm applied to a good 20+ locations, and interviews at only five of them, and no one has called me back. Am I unemployable? I sure hope not. My goal this year is to earn at least $2000 dollars - enough for tuition to Korean language school next summer and to pay for the next two semesters of fencing club dues. How can I earn that if I don't have a job?
Well, hopefully something will work out. As much as I love to garden and sew, I really need the money this year - Elena's gotta go to Korea in 2010!
Speaking of Korean, got an email from my last Korean teacher, Professor Tahk. She sent me a very nice email which had the added side-effect of making me feel incredibly guilty for not giving it my all, since I spent pretty much the last two semesters stressing about Calculus first and Korean second. I shouldn't feel guilty, since I truly sucked at Calculus and needed to spend as much time as possible on that class just to pass it, but I do. Perhaps it's the fact that if I had transferred a little of that effort from calculus to korean, I would have gotten an A instead of a B those semesters - that does stick in my craw a bit, and since I like Korean, I like to give it my all, even when I don't have the time.
Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Aside from reviewing American literature and history for my CREs this August, I can pretty much concentrate on just Korean - I'm even getting a penpal! Maybe I'll email Jay and see if he'll email me back...
Of course, I'm trying to get a job. No luck there. I'm applied to a good 20+ locations, and interviews at only five of them, and no one has called me back. Am I unemployable? I sure hope not. My goal this year is to earn at least $2000 dollars - enough for tuition to Korean language school next summer and to pay for the next two semesters of fencing club dues. How can I earn that if I don't have a job?
Well, hopefully something will work out. As much as I love to garden and sew, I really need the money this year - Elena's gotta go to Korea in 2010!
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April 20, 2009
Spengler, China, and Music
Spengler has been revealed! - as an American Jew. I feel rather disappointed in the whole affair - I bet he was a disaffected German, and my mother thought he was a Singaporean dissident, and as it happens, we were both wrong.
In some ways, I like Spengler quite a lot. I find his explanation for anti-Semitism very, very compelling - more compelling than the "they're all craaaazy" school of thought, anyway - and one of my favorite columns of his is on the subject of why Christmas is so hard for Jewish children. I found it amusing, not because I ever felt this way as child, but because it perfectly summed up the attitude of quite a few children of my acquaintance. I didn't know many Jewish kids - but I and my brothers were the only ones to not be jealous of my Christian classmates. I managed to survive well into adolescence without ever figuring out the Christian religious calender, let alone ever being envious of it, but I sure as hell had my own holidays to look forward to - Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah, then Chanukah at it's time, and then Purim, Passover, and even Shavuot. That doesn't even count the Shabbat, which was always a special night in my household.
Now, of course, I like Christmas quite a lot - but more in the Asian contest, where it's basically a big excuse to throw a party and give presents to your friends and have cheer and goodwill towards everyone. I have a long list of seasonal movies I watch at certain times of year, and my favorite Christmas movies are A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Tokyo Godfathers, and A Christmas Carol - and of them, I'd really say that only the last has any real "Christian" themes, and then only negligibly.
This diversion on my favorite Spengler column aside, I've just read his latest column. It's on the subject of music, and the disparity between students in America and students in China. Spengler, as it turns out, has a Ph.d in music, or at least has finished the work for one, so it explains his recurrent fascination with music. The column essentially has two statements: China teaches more of her children classical music, both proportionally and in pure numbers, while America does not - and this does not say anything good about America; because of this, the Chinese are going to take over the world, and they deserve to.
I agree with the first statement, but I am unsure of the veracity of the second. Spengler, as a rule, seems to be an excellent observer, but quite frankly, he's pants at predicting stuff (see, everything he's written on Russo-American relations, Iraq, Iran, etc). So I admit, when he says something's going to happen in the future, I take it with a grain of salt.
Spengler is right when he says China (and East Asia in general) values the education that learning a classical instrument brings more than America. For me, one of the worst of the many, many culture shocks I faced when I moved back to the U.S. was the lack of musical education among my generational cohort. That is, I went from being an Army brat in Korea, where not everyone, but almost everyone was learning the piano or the violin, American and Korean alike, to Texas, where learning a musical instrument was generally the province of upwardly mobile immigrants. There was orchestra and band in high school, of course - but there is a great deal of difference between learning a musical instrument in your early to mid-teens because it looks good on your resume, and picking it up at age five because it's "something everyone has to know", as my mother told me when I was five. I didn't particularly enjoy learning the piano at first, but fifteen years on, I do - and I value the training it gave me for other pursuits, especially those requiring concentration and practice. Math and music, or, say, foreign languages and music, whatever their theorectical similarities, also have a great deal in common in the ways of mastery - practice, and practice, and yet more practice.
So, yes, I think Spengler is right to decry the lack of musical training in America's youth. I think it's a cultural flaw, and I'll admit, I think American Idol is the dullest show I've ever seen. I watched it once, when I was 13, and ignored it thereafter, and seeing it now, years later, I haven't changed my opinion. America's children would probably be better off if they learned the piano instead of watching that show. Of course, I also think everyone should watch MGM musicals, so what do I know?
But his second point - that China will rule the world because of this musical education - is less clear. China's youth are fantastically driven and in many cases very well educated, and the next generation of new wealth and innovation in America may well come from such immigrants. This is not a surprise, for it's happened before and it will happen again. America can only become stronger from such an infusion of new blood. But I question if China itself will become a world leader in the way he predicts. Spengler is in some ways an unrestrained optimist in the Chinese government, and while the Chinese people are industrious and hardworking, I can't say the same of the Chinese government. I am very suspicious of many things in China's political order - it's banks, which choose to lend based on political reasons; property rights, which are still poorly defined and make Kelo look like hard-core libertarianism; it's stock market, which is still focused in Hong Kong and is hardly representative of China as a whole; even the urbanization Spengler touts as the Chinese triumph is discomforting, for people may move to the cities, but as soon as work dries up, the state has the right to send them back to their very poor home provinces, and there is no work to be had in those places. The Chinese government puts down thousands of protests and riots each year, and these protests seem to increase exponentially as each year goes on. People riot because they are wealthier, and wealthier people can afford to ask for their rights. Or they riot becasue they are getting poorer, and they see the government as the cause of their poverty. Or they riot because they don't careto have their unborn children forcibly aborted, or because they want to practice their religion freely, or because...
My point is, China is not the lovely stable country Spengler sees it as, and I don't believe that they have the infrastructure to actually rule the world as he sees it. The Chinese may very will be the New Rich in the next few decades. I just don't believe it will happen in China.
Well, I guess we'll see who is right in a few years - Spengler's powerful China, or my powerful Chinese-Americans.
In some ways, I like Spengler quite a lot. I find his explanation for anti-Semitism very, very compelling - more compelling than the "they're all craaaazy" school of thought, anyway - and one of my favorite columns of his is on the subject of why Christmas is so hard for Jewish children. I found it amusing, not because I ever felt this way as child, but because it perfectly summed up the attitude of quite a few children of my acquaintance. I didn't know many Jewish kids - but I and my brothers were the only ones to not be jealous of my Christian classmates. I managed to survive well into adolescence without ever figuring out the Christian religious calender, let alone ever being envious of it, but I sure as hell had my own holidays to look forward to - Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah, then Chanukah at it's time, and then Purim, Passover, and even Shavuot. That doesn't even count the Shabbat, which was always a special night in my household.
Now, of course, I like Christmas quite a lot - but more in the Asian contest, where it's basically a big excuse to throw a party and give presents to your friends and have cheer and goodwill towards everyone. I have a long list of seasonal movies I watch at certain times of year, and my favorite Christmas movies are A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Tokyo Godfathers, and A Christmas Carol - and of them, I'd really say that only the last has any real "Christian" themes, and then only negligibly.
This diversion on my favorite Spengler column aside, I've just read his latest column. It's on the subject of music, and the disparity between students in America and students in China. Spengler, as it turns out, has a Ph.d in music, or at least has finished the work for one, so it explains his recurrent fascination with music. The column essentially has two statements: China teaches more of her children classical music, both proportionally and in pure numbers, while America does not - and this does not say anything good about America; because of this, the Chinese are going to take over the world, and they deserve to.
I agree with the first statement, but I am unsure of the veracity of the second. Spengler, as a rule, seems to be an excellent observer, but quite frankly, he's pants at predicting stuff (see, everything he's written on Russo-American relations, Iraq, Iran, etc). So I admit, when he says something's going to happen in the future, I take it with a grain of salt.
Spengler is right when he says China (and East Asia in general) values the education that learning a classical instrument brings more than America. For me, one of the worst of the many, many culture shocks I faced when I moved back to the U.S. was the lack of musical education among my generational cohort. That is, I went from being an Army brat in Korea, where not everyone, but almost everyone was learning the piano or the violin, American and Korean alike, to Texas, where learning a musical instrument was generally the province of upwardly mobile immigrants. There was orchestra and band in high school, of course - but there is a great deal of difference between learning a musical instrument in your early to mid-teens because it looks good on your resume, and picking it up at age five because it's "something everyone has to know", as my mother told me when I was five. I didn't particularly enjoy learning the piano at first, but fifteen years on, I do - and I value the training it gave me for other pursuits, especially those requiring concentration and practice. Math and music, or, say, foreign languages and music, whatever their theorectical similarities, also have a great deal in common in the ways of mastery - practice, and practice, and yet more practice.
So, yes, I think Spengler is right to decry the lack of musical training in America's youth. I think it's a cultural flaw, and I'll admit, I think American Idol is the dullest show I've ever seen. I watched it once, when I was 13, and ignored it thereafter, and seeing it now, years later, I haven't changed my opinion. America's children would probably be better off if they learned the piano instead of watching that show. Of course, I also think everyone should watch MGM musicals, so what do I know?
But his second point - that China will rule the world because of this musical education - is less clear. China's youth are fantastically driven and in many cases very well educated, and the next generation of new wealth and innovation in America may well come from such immigrants. This is not a surprise, for it's happened before and it will happen again. America can only become stronger from such an infusion of new blood. But I question if China itself will become a world leader in the way he predicts. Spengler is in some ways an unrestrained optimist in the Chinese government, and while the Chinese people are industrious and hardworking, I can't say the same of the Chinese government. I am very suspicious of many things in China's political order - it's banks, which choose to lend based on political reasons; property rights, which are still poorly defined and make Kelo look like hard-core libertarianism; it's stock market, which is still focused in Hong Kong and is hardly representative of China as a whole; even the urbanization Spengler touts as the Chinese triumph is discomforting, for people may move to the cities, but as soon as work dries up, the state has the right to send them back to their very poor home provinces, and there is no work to be had in those places. The Chinese government puts down thousands of protests and riots each year, and these protests seem to increase exponentially as each year goes on. People riot because they are wealthier, and wealthier people can afford to ask for their rights. Or they riot becasue they are getting poorer, and they see the government as the cause of their poverty. Or they riot because they don't careto have their unborn children forcibly aborted, or because they want to practice their religion freely, or because...
My point is, China is not the lovely stable country Spengler sees it as, and I don't believe that they have the infrastructure to actually rule the world as he sees it. The Chinese may very will be the New Rich in the next few decades. I just don't believe it will happen in China.
Well, I guess we'll see who is right in a few years - Spengler's powerful China, or my powerful Chinese-Americans.
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March 23, 2009
First day of the rest of semester!
So, back to school after spring break, which was very dull and boring - just the way I like it. I slept a lot, ate a lot, and did nothing in particular - it was very enjoyable. First day back to school, and I am exhausted again. Funny how that works...
So, countdown! 56 days until summer break! Yay...
Fencing team is exhausting. Today "Well, we're not going to have practice today...officially..." So I'm a little pissed, since I showed up for Armory duty only to find they decided to fence instead - and I couldn't, because I wasn't wearing the appropriate clothes. God, that's irritating. Well, to hell with them, I guess.
Roommate has returned. No need to say what I think about that, I think it's obvious by now.
On the other hand, I brought back some DVDs, so instead of having to listen to "Dancing with the Stars", I am happily engrossed in "Banner of the Stars"...
So, countdown! 56 days until summer break! Yay...
Fencing team is exhausting. Today "Well, we're not going to have practice today...officially..." So I'm a little pissed, since I showed up for Armory duty only to find they decided to fence instead - and I couldn't, because I wasn't wearing the appropriate clothes. God, that's irritating. Well, to hell with them, I guess.
Roommate has returned. No need to say what I think about that, I think it's obvious by now.
On the other hand, I brought back some DVDs, so instead of having to listen to "Dancing with the Stars", I am happily engrossed in "Banner of the Stars"...
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March 03, 2009
Crappy day.
So, it's been one of those days where I want to bite everyone's head off. I was tired and pissed off - I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, where I was referred to more physical therapy, I spent the whole day exhausted because I'm way behind on my homework because I went to SWIFA #3, and the armory is a mess of epic proportions. We have no epees, no foils, even the sabers are disappearing...
It's been a shitty day.
Anyway, I got a lesson from Josh, which was cool. However, I now have some lovely welts on my right hip. Then we did three weapon relay, which sucked, because we didn't have enough weapons, and I had the joy of going up against Abel and getting lip from Chris because of my loss. *sighs* And I got a lot of crap about armory. Apparently, "armouror" means I should just fix every stupid-ass mistake those dolts make instead of making them do it themselves.
I don't know. It's just been a bad day.
It's been a shitty day.
Anyway, I got a lesson from Josh, which was cool. However, I now have some lovely welts on my right hip. Then we did three weapon relay, which sucked, because we didn't have enough weapons, and I had the joy of going up against Abel and getting lip from Chris because of my loss. *sighs* And I got a lot of crap about armory. Apparently, "armouror" means I should just fix every stupid-ass mistake those dolts make instead of making them do it themselves.
I don't know. It's just been a bad day.
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February 23, 2009
SWIFA tryouts (or why I hate doing new things in public)
So, busy few weeks for me, mostly with exams (two down, two to go!) and fencing. Not much to say about the former - no matter what teachers say, calculus isn't fun, and since the goal of language study is always fluency, I'm a little annoyed at Korean right now. I feel like my vocabulary is plateauing, and it's very frustrating.
Aside from that, fencing is about the only interesting thing going on right now. I was talked into competing in the saber pools for SWIFA, which I hadn't really wanted to do, since I'd only dry-fenced before, and I don't really enjoying fumbling around learning the electrical equipment in a match, but it worked out alright. It was just highly embarrassing. Oh well, supposedly pride is overvalued, so I got on with it and managed to beat two guys (out of eight), so I managed to make the B squad for SWIFA. This weekend I'm going to Denton, where I will have the joy of getting my ass beat up and down the strip by every other sabreur in the Southwest. Other than that, I'm sure it will be fun - I just hate losing.
One of my other friends made the alternate of the foil team, which is more impressive than it sounds, considering the foil team is first in the state, while the saber team is...well, significantly less than that, that's for sure. Another friend was planning to try out for the epee team, but he overslept instead. I don't think he's ever going to live that down...
Nothing else has happened. I've been reading the news like everyone else, but it's been so uniformly depressing, "tea parties" aside, that I haven't much to say about it that anyone else couldn't say. I suppose I should be glad that I'm young and poor and have nothing to lose - but it doesn't seem like the future is going to be very bright for people like me, is it? Well, we'll see.
Aside from that, fencing is about the only interesting thing going on right now. I was talked into competing in the saber pools for SWIFA, which I hadn't really wanted to do, since I'd only dry-fenced before, and I don't really enjoying fumbling around learning the electrical equipment in a match, but it worked out alright. It was just highly embarrassing. Oh well, supposedly pride is overvalued, so I got on with it and managed to beat two guys (out of eight), so I managed to make the B squad for SWIFA. This weekend I'm going to Denton, where I will have the joy of getting my ass beat up and down the strip by every other sabreur in the Southwest. Other than that, I'm sure it will be fun - I just hate losing.
One of my other friends made the alternate of the foil team, which is more impressive than it sounds, considering the foil team is first in the state, while the saber team is...well, significantly less than that, that's for sure. Another friend was planning to try out for the epee team, but he overslept instead. I don't think he's ever going to live that down...
Nothing else has happened. I've been reading the news like everyone else, but it's been so uniformly depressing, "tea parties" aside, that I haven't much to say about it that anyone else couldn't say. I suppose I should be glad that I'm young and poor and have nothing to lose - but it doesn't seem like the future is going to be very bright for people like me, is it? Well, we'll see.
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February 09, 2009
Bleah.
I'm pretty sure the over-under on stagflation is now even, so I'm trying to get used to the fact that the future is going to really suck. I guess it's a good thing I'm young and don't need to buy a house for awhile.
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February 03, 2009
The non-political sphere (or why I don't want to know your opinion about FOCA)
I'm taking a beginning violin class this semester, and one of my classmates is a history/government major who will not shut up. One of the first things she ever said to me was to inquire about my opinion of FOCA, and since I didn't know what FOCA was, I was rather rattled. What the hell kind of question is that? Seriously, lady, didn't your momma ever give you the talk about religion and politics?
Today, as we were waiting for the TA to come and unlock the room, one of our other classmates was complaining because she's taking upper-division Spanish, and even though her room-mate is from Monterrey, she can't help her because the book they are reading is banned in Mexico - some Aztec religious tract, I believe. And from there, we get into a whole discussion about how nations cover up the bad parts of their history, like, oh, the US and the Trail of Tears.
I pointed out that I'd known about the Trail of Tears since I was in middle school, at least, and she snottily said she hadn't heard about it until she was in the eleventh grade. Well, tough patootie, sweetheart: your lack of knowledge does not mean the US is censoring knowledge. It just means you don't read enough. Seriously, when someone says "President Jackson", odds are the first thing that comes to mind is either "Battle of New Orleans" or "Trail of Tears". It's like saying that because people don't spend their time talking about Japanese internment during WWII, it's the same as government censorship.
Oh, wait, she actually did argue this. Never mind. *sighs* You know, I think I've been spoiled. I've got some friends who are truly awesome history major/history degree -types, but obviously they are exceptions in their field. Apparently, expecting history majors to know actual history is too strenuous. Same for expecting government majors to understand the difference between government censorship and societal conversational taboos.
But this is old news to anyone who hangs out on college campuses (or actually speaks to today's best and brightest). No, my problem is with the fact that she actually brings this up in public. I mean, I'm a pretty big political nerd, but I know that there are times and places you don't bring that subject up. Violin class is one of them. But these days it seems like you can't escape from it all - I could be in a store, at the doctor's office, browsing fiction in the library, mingling after religious services, and the same exact thing could happen.
Jay Nordlinger has a whole series of columns about the subject, usually with the words "safe zones" somewhere in the title. I find the topic frustrating, because although man is a political animal, he is not solely a political animal. I like to argue policy as much as the next girl, but sometimes (well, most of the time) I'd rather just whine about my classes or the latest plot twist on Burn Notice. But so many people don't seem to recognize that - and the same people also seem to have a failure of imagination when it comes to the political affiliations of the people who they're inflicting their views upon. Like I said in the title, I don't care what your opinion on FOCA is, or your opinion on Roe vs. Wade, or the War on Terror, or health care, or anything. I just want to get into class.
What set this rant off? Something Yuval Levin said in the Corner, ironically about another one of those "conservatism is dead" pieces that have been wandering the commentary lately: "Conservatives try to use politics to defend the private sphere—that is, both the family and the market—from politics, while liberals tend to use politics to try to reshape the private sphere—again, both the family and the market. That means the left is fundamentally aggressive in the political sphere and the right is fundamentally defensive."
I guess what I'm trying to say is this: I just want to be left alone.
Today, as we were waiting for the TA to come and unlock the room, one of our other classmates was complaining because she's taking upper-division Spanish, and even though her room-mate is from Monterrey, she can't help her because the book they are reading is banned in Mexico - some Aztec religious tract, I believe. And from there, we get into a whole discussion about how nations cover up the bad parts of their history, like, oh, the US and the Trail of Tears.
I pointed out that I'd known about the Trail of Tears since I was in middle school, at least, and she snottily said she hadn't heard about it until she was in the eleventh grade. Well, tough patootie, sweetheart: your lack of knowledge does not mean the US is censoring knowledge. It just means you don't read enough. Seriously, when someone says "President Jackson", odds are the first thing that comes to mind is either "Battle of New Orleans" or "Trail of Tears". It's like saying that because people don't spend their time talking about Japanese internment during WWII, it's the same as government censorship.
Oh, wait, she actually did argue this. Never mind. *sighs* You know, I think I've been spoiled. I've got some friends who are truly awesome history major/history degree -types, but obviously they are exceptions in their field. Apparently, expecting history majors to know actual history is too strenuous. Same for expecting government majors to understand the difference between government censorship and societal conversational taboos.
But this is old news to anyone who hangs out on college campuses (or actually speaks to today's best and brightest). No, my problem is with the fact that she actually brings this up in public. I mean, I'm a pretty big political nerd, but I know that there are times and places you don't bring that subject up. Violin class is one of them. But these days it seems like you can't escape from it all - I could be in a store, at the doctor's office, browsing fiction in the library, mingling after religious services, and the same exact thing could happen.
Jay Nordlinger has a whole series of columns about the subject, usually with the words "safe zones" somewhere in the title. I find the topic frustrating, because although man is a political animal, he is not solely a political animal. I like to argue policy as much as the next girl, but sometimes (well, most of the time) I'd rather just whine about my classes or the latest plot twist on Burn Notice. But so many people don't seem to recognize that - and the same people also seem to have a failure of imagination when it comes to the political affiliations of the people who they're inflicting their views upon. Like I said in the title, I don't care what your opinion on FOCA is, or your opinion on Roe vs. Wade, or the War on Terror, or health care, or anything. I just want to get into class.
What set this rant off? Something Yuval Levin said in the Corner, ironically about another one of those "conservatism is dead" pieces that have been wandering the commentary lately: "Conservatives try to use politics to defend the private sphere—that is, both the family and the market—from politics, while liberals tend to use politics to try to reshape the private sphere—again, both the family and the market. That means the left is fundamentally aggressive in the political sphere and the right is fundamentally defensive."
I guess what I'm trying to say is this: I just want to be left alone.
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February 02, 2009
Jason Stratham is awesome forever.
Also, feminists suck. I say this not because I've had some sort of horrid experience with one today, but because I was reading a post on The Other McCain about PJM blog-ads debacle. Now, I don't really care about the PJM financial structure, but inside the post he said something that sums up my feelings about feminism exactly:
As I keep reminding you people, I write for money. Fee-for-service. An honest proposition:
He's actually talking about people who bitch about how they aren't getting what they deserve at their jobs, but I think it pretty much sums up the current, default view of feminists towards work. The Man is keeping you down, girl! Fight the power...by enacting stupid anti-discrimination laws! My current RA seems to be this sort of person, and I always want to tell her to shut up, if I'm not getting the money I think I deserve, I'll quit and work for someone who'll pay me more. Why is this such a novel idea?
Anyway, rant aside, I watched the Superbowl commercials today - I watched some of them during the game, but there were a few I missed. I will admit, my favorite was the Audi ad - they're laughing at themselves and at Jason Stratham, who has earned his justly earned reputation as a B-movie action star. He sort of reminds me of Vin Diesel before he got pretentious. Vin Diesel is going back to his roots (thank God!) and the Rock is still doing the action-humor thing, which he's actually sorta good at. Goofy guy, I guess.
EDIT: OK, anyone want to help me stick blockquotes in here?
As I keep reminding you people, I write for money. Fee-for-service. An honest proposition:
- If you can hire somebody else cheaper and get satisfactory results, go for it.
- If somebody else offers me more money to do the same job, I'll go for that.
- If you don't like what I turn in, I'll pitch it somewhere else.
- And if I start feeling I'm not being treated right, I can find my way to the door.
- If you let somebody take advantage of you, whose fault is that?
- If your employer does not treat you with courtesy and respect, whose fault is that?
- If other employees seem to get favorable treatment, why don't you?
. . . and perhaps most importantly . . .
- If you are so damned mistreated and underpaid, why is it you can't find somebody to pay you more and treat you better?
He's actually talking about people who bitch about how they aren't getting what they deserve at their jobs, but I think it pretty much sums up the current, default view of feminists towards work. The Man is keeping you down, girl! Fight the power...by enacting stupid anti-discrimination laws! My current RA seems to be this sort of person, and I always want to tell her to shut up, if I'm not getting the money I think I deserve, I'll quit and work for someone who'll pay me more. Why is this such a novel idea?
Anyway, rant aside, I watched the Superbowl commercials today - I watched some of them during the game, but there were a few I missed. I will admit, my favorite was the Audi ad - they're laughing at themselves and at Jason Stratham, who has earned his justly earned reputation as a B-movie action star. He sort of reminds me of Vin Diesel before he got pretentious. Vin Diesel is going back to his roots (thank God!) and the Rock is still doing the action-humor thing, which he's actually sorta good at. Goofy guy, I guess.
EDIT: OK, anyone want to help me stick blockquotes in here?
Posted by: elenathehun at
11:18 PM
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February 01, 2009
Superbowl XLIII
So, not a bad game. The Cards had their requisite crappy two quarters - usually they split it up by halves, but OK, 1st and 3rd quarter add up the same - but the last quarter was pretty good. I got a 100-yard rush (because I love the running game, yes I do) and my brother got a safety in the Superbowl, both of which were crazy.
Now, back to my Korean homework!
Now, back to my Korean homework!
Posted by: elenathehun at
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January 27, 2009
Whoo! Banner!
So, I made a banner and figured out how to upload it. Awesome, yeah? Yeah. Now I just have to figure out how to upload my imports...
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January 26, 2009
Curse you, Wordpress!
Pretty much what the title says. My original site at Wordpress is essentially dead since it won't let me post anything, so I guess I'll be using this site from now. Now all I gotta do is figure it out...it's a little DIY, isn't it?
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